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Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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Speaker 1: work in the public domain, Carmillah by Joseph Sheridan l'fanu,
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Speaker 1: Chapter one, an early fright in Styria. We, though by
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Speaker 1: no means magnificent, people inhabit a castle or schloss. A
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Speaker 1: small income in that part of the world goes a
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Speaker 1: great way eight or nine hundred a year. Does wonders
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Speaker 1: scantily enough? Ours would have answered among wealthy people at home.
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Speaker 1: My father is English and I bear an English name.
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Speaker 1: Although I never saw England. But here, in this lonely
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Speaker 1: and primitive place, where everything is so marvelously cheap, I
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Speaker 1: really don't see. However, so much more money would it
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Speaker 1: all materially add to our comforts or even luxuries. My
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Speaker 1: father was in the Austrian service and retired upon a
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Speaker 1: pension in his patrimony, and purchased this feudal residence and
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Speaker 1: the small estate on which it stands a bargain. Nothing
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Speaker 1: can be more picturesque or solitary. It stands on a
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Speaker 1: slight eminence in a forest, The road very old and narrow,
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Speaker 1: passes in front of its drawbridge, never raised in my time,
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Speaker 1: and its moat stocked with perch, and sailed over by
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Speaker 1: many swans, and floating on its surface white fleets of
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Speaker 1: water lilies. Over All this, the Schloss shows its many
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Speaker 1: windowed front, its towers, and its Gothic chapel. The forest
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Speaker 1: opens in an irregular and very picturesque glade before its gate,
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Speaker 1: and at the right a steep Gothic bridge carries the
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Speaker 1: road over a stream that winds in deep shadow through
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Speaker 1: the wood. I have said that this is a very
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Speaker 1: lonely place. Judge whether I say truth. Looking from the
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Speaker 1: hall door towards the road, the forest in which our
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Speaker 1: castle stands extends fifteen miles to the right and twelve
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Speaker 1: to the left. The nearest inhabited village is about seven
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Speaker 1: of your English miles to the left. The nearest inhabited
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Speaker 1: schloss of any historic associations is that of old General Spielsdorf,
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Speaker 1: nearly twenty miles away to the right. I have said
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Speaker 1: the nearest inhabited village, because there is only three miles westward,
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Speaker 1: that is to say, in the direction of General Spielsdorf's Schloss,
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Speaker 1: a ruined village with its quaint little church now roofless,
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Speaker 1: in the isle of which are the moldering tombs of
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Speaker 1: the proud family of Carnstein, now extinct, who once owned
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Speaker 1: the equally desolate chateau, which, in the thick of the
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Speaker 1: forest overlooks the silent ruins of the town. Respecting the
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Speaker 1: cause of the desertion of this striking and melancholy spot,
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Speaker 1: there is a legend which I shall relate to you
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Speaker 1: another time. I must tell you now how very small
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Speaker 1: is the party who constitute the inhabitants of our castle.
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Speaker 1: I don't include servants or those dependents who occupy rooms
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Speaker 1: in the buildings attached to the Schloss. Listen and wonder
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Speaker 1: my father, who is the kindest man on earth, but
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Speaker 1: growing old, and I at the date of my story,
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Speaker 1: only nineteen eight years have passed. Since then, I and
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Speaker 1: my father constituted the family at the Schloss. My mother,
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Speaker 1: a Styrian lady, died in my infancy, but I had
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Speaker 1: a good natured governess who had been with me from
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Speaker 1: I might almost say my infancy. I could not remember
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Speaker 1: the time when her fat, benignant face was not a
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Speaker 1: familiar picture in my memory. This was Madame Paradon, a
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Speaker 1: native of Berne, whose care and good nature now in
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Speaker 1: part supplied to me the loss of my mother, whom
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Speaker 1: I do not even remember, so early I lost her.
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Speaker 1: She made a third. At our little dinner party. There
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Speaker 1: was a fourth, Mademoiselle de la Fontaine, a lady such
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Speaker 1: as you urn I believe, a finishing governess. She spoke
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Speaker 1: French and German. Madame paradon French and broken English, to
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Speaker 1: which my father and I added English, which, partly to
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Speaker 1: prevent its becoming a lost language among us, and partly
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Speaker 1: from patriotic motives, we spoke every day. The consequence was
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Speaker 1: a babble at which strangers used to laugh, and which
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Speaker 1: I shall make no attempt to reproduce in this narrative.
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Speaker 1: And there were two or three young lady friends besides
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Speaker 1: pretty nearly of my own age, who were occasional visitors
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Speaker 1: for longer or shorter terms, and these visits I sometimes returned.
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Speaker 1: These were our regular social resources. But of course there
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Speaker 1: were chance visits from neighbors of only five or six
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Speaker 1: leagues distance. My life was, notwithstanding, rather a solitary one.
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Speaker 1: I can assure you my gouvernantes had just so much
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Speaker 1: control over me as you might conjecture such sage persons
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Speaker 1: would have in the case of a rather spoiled girl
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Speaker 1: whose only parent allowed her pretty nearly her own way
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Speaker 1: in everything. The first occurrence in my existence which produced
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Speaker 1: a terrible impression upon my mind, which in fact never
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Speaker 1: has been effaced, was one of the very earliest incidents
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Speaker 1: of my life which I can recollect. Some people will
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Speaker 1: think it so trifling that it should not be recorded here.
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Speaker 1: You will see, however, by and by why I mention it.
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Speaker 1: The nursery, as it was called, though I had it
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Speaker 1: all to myself, was a large room in the upper
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Speaker 1: story of the castle, with a steep oak roof. I
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Speaker 1: can't have been more than six years old when one
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Speaker 1: night I awoke, and looking round the room from my bed,
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Speaker 1: failed to see the nursery maid. Neither was my nurse there,
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Speaker 1: and I thought myself alone. I was not frightened, for
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Speaker 1: I was one of those happy children who are studiously
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Speaker 1: kept in ignorance of ghost stories, of fairy tales, and
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Speaker 1: of all such lore as makes us cover up our
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Speaker 1: heads when the door cracks suddenly, or the flicker of
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Speaker 1: an expiring candle makes the shadow of a bedpost dance
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Speaker 1: upon the wall nearer to our faces. I was vexed
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Speaker 1: and insulted at finding myself as I conceived neglected, and
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Speaker 1: I began to whimper preparatory to a hearty bout of roaring,
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Speaker 1: when to my surprise, I saw a solemn but very
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Speaker 1: pretty face looking at me from the side of the bed.
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Speaker 1: It was that of a young lady who was kneeling
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Speaker 1: with her hands under the coverlet. I looked at her
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Speaker 1: with a kind of pleased wonder and ceased whimpering. She
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Speaker 1: caressed me with her hands and lay down beside me
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Speaker 1: on the bed and drew me towards her, smiling. I
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Speaker 1: felt immediately delightfully soothed, and fell asleep again. I was
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Speaker 1: wakened by a sensation as if two needles ran into
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Speaker 1: my breast very deep at the same moment, and I
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Speaker 1: cried loudly. The lady started back with her eyes fixed
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Speaker 1: on me, and then slipped down upon the floor, and,
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Speaker 1: as I thought, hid herself under the bed. I was,
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Speaker 1: now for the first time frightened, and I yelled with
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Speaker 1: all my might, and main, nurse, nursery, maid, housekeeper all
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Speaker 1: came running in and hearing my story, they made light
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Speaker 1: of it, soothing me all they could. Meanwhile, but child
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Speaker 1: as I was, I could perceive that their faces were
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Speaker 1: pale with an unwonted look of anxiety. And I saw
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Speaker 1: them look under the bed and about the room, and
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Speaker 1: peep under tables and pluck open cupboards. And the housekeeper
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Speaker 1: whispered to the nurse, lay your hand along that hollow
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Speaker 1: in the bed. Someone did lie there, so sure as
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Speaker 1: you did not. The place is still warm. I remember
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Speaker 1: the nursery maid petting me, and all three examining my
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Speaker 1: chest where I told them I felt the puncture, and
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Speaker 1: pronouncing that there was no sign visible that any such
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Speaker 1: thing had happened to me. The housekeeper and the two
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Speaker 1: other servants who were in charge of the nursery remained
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Speaker 1: sitting up all night, and from that time a servant
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Speaker 1: always sat up in the nursery until I was about fourteen.
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Speaker 1: I was very nervous for a long time. After this,
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Speaker 1: a doctor was called in. He was pallid and elderly.
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Speaker 1: How well I remember his long, saturnine face, slightly pitted
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Speaker 1: with smallpox, and his chestnut wig. For a good while
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Speaker 1: every second day he came and gave me medicine, which
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Speaker 1: of course I hated. The morning after I saw this apparition,
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Speaker 1: I was in a state of terror, and could not
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Speaker 1: bear to be left alone daylight. Though it was for
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Speaker 1: a moment. I remember my father coming up and standing
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Speaker 1: at the bedside and talking cheerfully, and asking the nurse
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Speaker 1: a number of questions, and laughing very heartily at one
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Speaker 1: of the answers, and patting me on the shoulder and
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Speaker 1: kissing me, and telling me not to be frightened, that
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Speaker 1: it was nothing but a dream and could not hurt me.
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Speaker 1: But I was not comforted, for I knew the visit
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Speaker 1: of the strange woman was not a dream, and I
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Speaker 1: was awfully frightened. I was a little consoled by the
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Speaker 1: nursery maids assuring me that it was she who had
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Speaker 1: come and looked at me and laying down beside me
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Speaker 1: in the bed, and that I must have been half
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Speaker 1: dreaming not to have known her face. But this, though
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Speaker 1: supported by the nurse, did not quite satisfy me. I
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Speaker 1: remembered in the course of that day a venerable old
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Speaker 1: man in a black cassock coming into the room with
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Speaker 1: the nurse and housekeeper, and talking a little to them,
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Speaker 1: and very kindly to me. His face was very sweet
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Speaker 1: and gentle, and he told me they were going to pray,
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Speaker 1: and joined my hands together, and desired me to say
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Speaker 1: softly while they were praying, Lord here, all good prayers
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Speaker 1: for us, for jesus sake. I think these were the
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Speaker 1: very words, for I often repeated them to myself, and
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Speaker 1: my nurse used for years to make me say them
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Speaker 1: in my prayers. I remembered so well the thoughtful, sweet
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Speaker 1: face of that white haired old man in his black cassock,
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Speaker 1: as he stood in that rude, lofty brown room, with
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Speaker 1: the clumsy furniture of a fashion three hundred years old
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Speaker 1: about him, and the scanty light entering its shadowy atmosphere
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Speaker 1: through the small lattice he kneeled, and the three women
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Speaker 1: with him, and he prayed aloud with an earnest, quavering
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Speaker 1: voice for what appeared to me a long time. I
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Speaker 1: forget all my life preceding that event, and for some
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Speaker 1: time after it is all obscure also. But the scenes
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Speaker 1: I have just described stand out vivid as the isolated
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Speaker 1: pictures of the phantasmagoria surrounded by darkness. Two. A guest,
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Speaker 1: I am now going to tell you something so strange
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Speaker 1: that it will require all your li faith in my
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Speaker 1: veracity to believe my story. It is not only true nevertheless,
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Speaker 1: but truth of which I have been an eye witness.
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Speaker 1: It was a sweet summer evening, and my father asked me,
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Speaker 1: as he sometimes did, to take a little ramble with
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Speaker 1: him along that beautiful forest vista which I have mentioned
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Speaker 1: as lying in front of the Schloss General Spielsdorf. Cannot
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Speaker 1: come to us so soon as I had hoped, said
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Speaker 1: my father, as we pursued our walk. He was to
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Speaker 1: have paid us a visit of some weeks, and we
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Speaker 1: had expected his arrival next day. He was to have
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Speaker 1: brought with him a young lady, his niece and ward,
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Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Rainfeldt, whom I had never seen, but whom I
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Speaker 1: had heard described as a very charming girl, and in
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Speaker 1: whose society I had promised myself many happy days. I
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Speaker 1: was more disappointed than a young lady living in a
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Speaker 1: town or a bustling neighborhood can possibly imagine. This visit
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Speaker 1: and the new acquaintance it promised, had furnished my day
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Speaker 1: dream for many weeks. And how soon does he come,
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Speaker 1: I asked? Not till autumn, Not for two months, I
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Speaker 1: dare say, he answered. And I am very glad now, Dear,
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Speaker 1: that you never knew Mademoiselle Rainfeldt, and why, I asked,
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Speaker 1: both mortified and curious, because the poor young lady is dead,
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Speaker 1: he replied, I quite forgot. I had not told you,
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Speaker 1: but you were not in the room when I received
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Speaker 1: the General's letter this evening. I was very much shocked.
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Speaker 1: General Spielsdorf had mentioned in his first letter six or
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Speaker 1: seven weeks before that she was not so well as
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Speaker 1: he would wish her. But there was nothing to suggest
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Speaker 1: the remotest suspicion of danger. Here is the General's letter,
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Speaker 1: he said, handing it to me. I am afraid he
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Speaker 1: is in great affliction. The letter appears to me to
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Speaker 1: have been written very nearly in distraction. We sat down
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Speaker 1: on a route bench under a group of magnificent lime trees.
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Speaker 1: The sun was setting with all its melancholy splendor behind
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Speaker 1: the Sylvan horizon, and the stream that flows beside our
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Speaker 1: home and passes under the steep old bridge I have mentioned,
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Speaker 1: wound through many a group of noble trees, almost at
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Speaker 1: our feet, reflecting in its current the fading crimson of
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Speaker 1: the sky. General Spielsdorf's letter was so extraordinary, so vehement,
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Speaker 1: and in some places so self contradictory that I read
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Speaker 1: it twice over, the second time aloud to my father,
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Speaker 1: and was still unable to account for it, except by
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Speaker 1: supposing that grief had unsettled his mind. It said, I
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Speaker 1: have lost my darling daughter, for as such I loved her.
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Speaker 1: During the last days of dear Bertha's illness, I was
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Speaker 1: not able to write to you before then, I had
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Speaker 1: no idea of her danger. I have lost her, and
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Speaker 1: now learn all too late. She died in the peace
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Speaker 1: of innocence and in the glorious hope of a blessed futurity.
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Speaker 1: The fiend who betrayed our infatuated hospitality has done it all.
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Speaker 1: I thought I was receiving into my house innocence, gayety,
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Speaker 1: a charming companion for my lost Bertha. Heavens, what a
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Speaker 1: fool have I been. I thank God my child died
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Speaker 1: without a suspicion of the cause of her sufferings. She
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Speaker 1: is gone without so much as conjecturing the nature of
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Speaker 1: her illness and the accursed passion of the agent of
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Speaker 1: all this misery. I devote my remaining days to tracking
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Speaker 1: and extinguishing a monster I am told I may hope
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Speaker 1: to accomplish my righteous and merciful purpose. At present there
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Speaker 1: is scarcely a gleam of light to guide me. I
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Speaker 1: curse my conceited incredulity, my despicable affectation of superiority, my blindness,
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Speaker 1: my obstinacy. All too late, I cannot write or talk collectedly.
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Speaker 1: Now I am distracted. So soon as I shall have
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Speaker 1: a little recovered, I mean to devote myself for a
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Speaker 1: time to inquiry, which may possibly lead me as far
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Speaker 1: as Vienna some time in the autumn two months hence
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Speaker 1: or earlier. If I live, I will see you, that is,
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Speaker 1: if you permit me. I will then tell you all
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Speaker 1: that I scarce dare put upon paper. Now farewell, pray
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Speaker 1: for me, dear friend. In these terms ended this strange letter.
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Speaker 1: Though I had never seen Bertha rainfelt my eyes filled
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Speaker 1: with tears at the sudden intelligence. I was startled as
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Speaker 1: well as profoundly disappointed. The sun had now set and
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Speaker 1: it was twilight by the time I had returned the
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Speaker 1: General's letter to my father. It was a soft, clear evening,
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Speaker 1: and we loitered, speculating upon the possible meanings of the
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Speaker 1: violent and incoherent sentences which I had just been reading.
14:37
Speaker 1: We had nearly a mile to walk before reaching the
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Speaker 1: road that passes the Schloss in front, and by that
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Speaker 1: time the moon was shining brilliantly. At the drawbridge we
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Speaker 1: met Madame Paradon and Mademoiselle de la Fontaine, who had
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Speaker 1: come out without their bonnets to enjoy the exquisite moonlight.
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Speaker 1: We heard their voices gabbling in animated dialog as we approached,
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Speaker 1: joined them at the drawbridge, and turned about to admire
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Speaker 1: with them the beautiful scene. The glade through which we
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Speaker 1: had just walked lay before us. At our left, the
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Speaker 1: narrow road wound away under clumps of lordly trees and
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Speaker 1: was lost to sight amid the thickening forest. At the right,
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Speaker 1: the same road crosses the steep and picturesque bridge, near
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Speaker 1: which stands a ruined tower which once guarded that pass.
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Speaker 1: And beyond the bridge, in abrupt eminence, rises covered with
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Speaker 1: trees and showing in the shadows some gray, ivy clustered rocks.
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Speaker 1: Over the sward and low grounds, a thin film of
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Speaker 1: mist was stealing like smoke, marking the distances with a
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Speaker 1: transparent veil, and here and there we could see the
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Speaker 1: river faintly flashing in the moonlight. No softer, sweeter scene
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Speaker 1: could be imagined. The news I had just heard made
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Speaker 1: it melancholy, but nothing could disturb its character of profound
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Speaker 1: serenity and the enchanted glory and vagueness of the prospect.
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Speaker 1: My father, who enjoyed the picturesque, and I stood looking
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Speaker 1: in silence over the expanse beneath us. The two good governesses,
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Speaker 1: standing a little way behind us, discoursed upon the scene
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Speaker 1: and were eloquent upon the moon. Madame Paradon was fat,
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Speaker 1: middle aged, and romantic, and talked inside poetically. Mademoiselle de
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Speaker 1: la Fontaine, in right of her father, who was a German,
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Speaker 1: assumed to be psychological, metaphysical, and something of a mystic,
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Speaker 1: now declared that when the moon shone with a light
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Speaker 1: so intense, it was well known that it indicated a
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Speaker 1: special spiritual activity. The effect of the full moon in
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Speaker 1: such a state of brilliancy was manifold. It acted on dreams,
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Speaker 1: it acted on lunacy, it acted on nervous people. It
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Speaker 1: had marvelous physical influences connected with life. Mademoiselle related that
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Speaker 1: her cousin, who was made of a merchant ship, having
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Speaker 1: taken a nap on deck on such a night lying
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Speaker 1: on his back with his face full, and the light
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Speaker 1: on the moon had wakened after a dream of an
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Speaker 1: old woman clawing him by the cheek, with his features
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Speaker 1: horribly drawn to one side, and his countenance had never
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Speaker 1: quite recovered its equilibrium. The moon this night, she said,
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Speaker 1: is full of idyllic and magnetic influence. And see when
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Speaker 1: you look behind you at the front of the schloss,
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Speaker 1: how all its windows flash and twinkle with that silvery splendor,
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Speaker 1: as if unseen hands had lighted up the rooms to
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Speaker 1: receive fairy guests. There are indolent styles of the spirits,
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Speaker 1: in which, indisposed to talk ourselves, the talk of others
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Speaker 1: is pleasant to our listless ears. And I gazed on,
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Speaker 1: pleased with the tinkle of the ladies conversation. I have
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Speaker 1: got into one of my moping moods to night, said
17:39
Speaker 1: my father, after a silence, and quoting Shakespeare, whom by
17:43
Speaker 1: way of keeping up our English, he used to read aloud.
17:46
Speaker 1: He said, in truth, I know not why I am
17:49
Speaker 1: so sad. It wearies me, you say it wearies you,
17:53
Speaker 1: But how I got it came by it? I forget
17:56
Speaker 1: the rest, But I feel as if some great miss
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Speaker 1: fortune were hanging over us. I suppose the poor general's
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Speaker 1: afflicted letter has had something to do with it. At
18:06
Speaker 1: this moment, the unwonted sound of carriage wheels and many
18:09
Speaker 1: hoofs upon the road arrested our attention. They seemed to
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Speaker 1: be approaching from the high ground overlooking the bridge, and
18:16
Speaker 1: very soon the equipage emerged. From that point. Two horsemen
18:21
Speaker 1: first crossed the bridge. Then came a carriage drawn by
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Speaker 1: four horses, and two men rode behind. It seemed to
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Speaker 1: be the traveling carriage of a person of rank, and
18:30
Speaker 1: we were all immediately absorbed in watching that very unusual spectacle.
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Speaker 1: It became in a few moments greatly more interesting, for
18:39
Speaker 1: just as the carriage had passed the summit of the
18:41
Speaker 1: steep bridge, one of the leaders taking fright, communicated his
18:45
Speaker 1: panic to the rest, and after a plunge or two,
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Speaker 1: the whole team broke into a wild gallop together, and
18:51
Speaker 1: dashing between the horsemen who rode in front, came thundering
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Speaker 1: along the road towards us with the speed of a hurricane.
18:59
Speaker 1: The excitement of the scene was made more painful by
19:01
Speaker 1: the clear, long drawn screams of a female voice from
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Speaker 1: the carriage window. We all advanced in curiosity, in horror,
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Speaker 1: me rather in silence, the rest with various ejaculations of terror.
19:14
Speaker 1: Our suspense did not last long. Just before you reached
19:18
Speaker 1: the castle drawbridge, on the route they were coming, there
19:21
Speaker 1: stands by the roadside a magnificent lime tree. On the
19:24
Speaker 1: other stands an ancient stone cross, at sight of which
19:27
Speaker 1: the horses, now going at a pace that was perfectly frightful,
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Speaker 1: swerved so as to bring the wheel over the projecting
19:33
Speaker 1: roots of the tree. I knew what was coming. I
19:37
Speaker 1: covered my eyes, unable to see it out, and turned
19:40
Speaker 1: my head away. At the same moment I heard a
19:43
Speaker 1: cry from my lady friends, who had gone on. A
19:45
Speaker 1: little curiosity opened my eyes, and I saw a scene
19:49
Speaker 1: of utter confusion. Two of the horses were on the ground,
19:54
Speaker 1: The carriage lay upon its side, with two wheels in
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Speaker 1: the air. The men were busy removing the traces, and
19:59
Speaker 1: a lady with the commanding air and figure had got
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Speaker 1: out and stood with clasped hands, raising the handkerchief that
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Speaker 1: was in them every now and then to her eyes.
20:08
Speaker 1: Through the carriage door was now lifted a young lady
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Speaker 1: who appeared to be lifeless. My dear old father was
20:14
Speaker 1: already beside the elder lady, with his hat in his hand,
20:18
Speaker 1: evidently tendering his aid and the resources of his schloss.
20:22
Speaker 1: The lady did not appear to hear him, or to
20:24
Speaker 1: have eyes for anything, but the slender girl, who was
20:27
Speaker 1: being placed against the slope of the bank I approached.
20:30
Speaker 1: The young lady was apparently stunned, but she was certainly
20:34
Speaker 1: not dead. My father, who piqued himself on being something
20:38
Speaker 1: of a physician, had just had his fingers on her wrist,
20:41
Speaker 1: and assured the lady, who declared herself for mother, that
20:44
Speaker 1: her pulse, though faint and irregular, was undoubtedly still distinguishable.
20:49
Speaker 1: The lady clasped her hands and looked upward, as if
20:52
Speaker 1: in a momentary transport of gratitude. But immediately she broke
20:55
Speaker 1: out again in that theatrical way which is I believe
20:59
Speaker 1: natural to some. She was what is called a fine
21:02
Speaker 1: looking woman for her time of life, and must have
21:05
Speaker 1: been handsome. She was tall, but not thin, and dressed
21:08
Speaker 1: in black velvet, and looked rather pale, but with a
21:11
Speaker 1: proud and commanding countenance, though now agitated strangely, who was
21:16
Speaker 1: ever being so born to calamity I heard her say
21:19
Speaker 1: with clasped hands as I came up here. Am I
21:23
Speaker 1: on a journey of life and death in prosecuting which
21:26
Speaker 1: to lose an hour is possibly to lose all. My
21:30
Speaker 1: child will not have recovered sufficiently to resume her route.
21:32
Speaker 1: For who can say how long I must leave her?
21:36
Speaker 1: I cannot dare not delay. How far on, Sir? Can
21:41
Speaker 1: you tell is the nearest village? I must leave her
21:44
Speaker 1: there and shall not see my darling or even hear
21:47
Speaker 1: of her till my return three months? Hence I plucked
21:50
Speaker 1: my father by the coat and whispered earnestly in his ear. Oh, Papa,
21:55
Speaker 1: pray ask her to let her stay with us. It
21:57
Speaker 1: would be so delightful you pray if Madam will intrust
22:03
Speaker 1: her child to the care of my daughter and of
22:05
Speaker 1: her good gouvernante Madame Paradon, and permit her to remain
22:08
Speaker 1: as our guest under my charge until her return. It
22:12
Speaker 1: will confer a distinction in an obligation upon us, and
22:15
Speaker 1: we shall treat her with all the care and devotion
22:17
Speaker 1: which so sacred a trust deserves. I cannot do that, Sir.
22:22
Speaker 1: It would be to task your kindness and chivalry too cruelly,
22:25
Speaker 1: said the lady distractedly. It would, on the contrary, be
22:30
Speaker 1: to confer on us a very great kindness at the
22:32
Speaker 1: moment when we most need it. My daughter has just
22:36
Speaker 1: been disappointed by a cruel misfortune in a visit from
22:39
Speaker 1: which she had long anticipated a great deal of happiness.
22:43
Speaker 1: If you confide this young lady to our care, it
22:45
Speaker 1: will be her best consolation. The nearest village on your
22:49
Speaker 1: route is distant and affords no such inn as you
22:52
Speaker 1: could think of placing your daughter at. You cannot allow
22:55
Speaker 1: her to continue her journey for any considerable distance without danger. If,
23:00
Speaker 1: as you say, you cannot suspend your journey, you must
23:03
Speaker 1: part with her to night. And nowhere could you do
23:05
Speaker 1: so with more honest assurances of care and tenderness than hear.
23:10
Speaker 1: There was something in this lady's air and appearance, so
23:12
Speaker 1: distinguished and even imposing, and in her manner so engaging,
23:16
Speaker 1: as to impress one quite apart from the dignity of
23:19
Speaker 1: her equipage, with a conviction that she was a person
23:22
Speaker 1: of consequence. By this time, the carriage was replaced in
23:26
Speaker 1: its upright position, and the horses quite tractable in the traces. Again,
23:31
Speaker 1: the lady threw on her daughter a glance which I
23:33
Speaker 1: fancied was not quite so affectionate as one might have
23:36
Speaker 1: anticipated from the beginning of the scene. Then she beckoned
23:39
Speaker 1: slightly to my father, and withdrew two or three steps
23:42
Speaker 1: with him out of hearing, and talked to him with
23:44
Speaker 1: a fixed and stern countenance, not at all like that
23:48
Speaker 1: with which she had hitherto spoken. I was filled with
23:52
Speaker 1: wonder that my father did not seem to perceive the change,
23:55
Speaker 1: and also unspeakably curious to learn what it could be
23:57
Speaker 1: that she was speaking almost in his ear with so
24:00
Speaker 1: much earnestness and rapidity. Two or three minutes at most
24:04
Speaker 1: I think she remained thus employed. Then she turned, and
24:07
Speaker 1: a few steps brought her to where her daughter lay,
24:10
Speaker 1: supported by Madame Paradon. She kneeled beside her for a
24:14
Speaker 1: moment and whispered as Madam supposed a little benediction in
24:18
Speaker 1: her ear. Then, hastily kissing her, she stepped into her carriage.
24:21
Speaker 1: The door was closed. The footmen in stately liveries jumped
24:25
Speaker 1: up behind the outriders, spurred on the postilions, cracked their whips.
24:30
Speaker 1: The horses plunged and broke. Suddenly into a furious canter
24:33
Speaker 1: that threatened soon again to become a gallop, and the
24:36
Speaker 1: carriage whirled away, followed at the same rapid pace by
24:39
Speaker 1: the two horsemen in the rear free we compare notes.
24:44
Speaker 1: We followed the cortege with our eyes until it was
24:46
Speaker 1: swiftly lost to sight in the misty wood, and the
24:49
Speaker 1: very sound of the hoofs and the wheels died away
24:52
Speaker 1: in the silent night air. Nothing remained to assure us
24:55
Speaker 1: that the adventure had not been an illusion of a moment.
24:58
Speaker 1: But the young lady who justify that moment opened her eyes.
25:02
Speaker 1: I could not see, for her face was turned from me,
25:05
Speaker 1: but she raised her head, evidently looking about her, and
25:08
Speaker 1: I heard a very sweet voice as complainingly, where is
25:11
Speaker 1: Mamma our good Madame Paradon answered tenderly and added some
25:15
Speaker 1: comfortable assurances. I then heard her ask where am I?
25:20
Speaker 1: What is this place? And after that she said I
25:24
Speaker 1: don't see the carriage, and Matska, where is she? Madame
25:27
Speaker 1: answered all her questions in so far as she understood them,
25:30
Speaker 1: and gradually the young lady remembered how the misadventure came about,
25:34
Speaker 1: and was glad to hear that no one in or
25:36
Speaker 1: in attendance on the carriage was hurt, and on learning
25:40
Speaker 1: that her Mamma had left her here till her return
25:43
Speaker 1: in about three months, she wept. I was going to
25:47
Speaker 1: add my consolations to those of Madame Paradon, when Mademoiselle
25:50
Speaker 1: de la Fontaine placed her hand upon my arm, saying
25:53
Speaker 1: don't approach one at a time is as much as
25:56
Speaker 1: she can at present converse with a very little excite
26:00
Speaker 1: would possibly overpower her. Now, as soon as she is
26:03
Speaker 1: comfortably in bed, I thought, I will run up to
26:05
Speaker 1: her room and see her. My father, in the meantime
26:09
Speaker 1: had sent a servant on horseback for the physician, who
26:12
Speaker 1: lived about two leagues away, and a bedroom was being
26:14
Speaker 1: prepared for the young lady's reception. The stranger now rose, and,
26:19
Speaker 1: leaning on Madam's arm, walked slowly over the drawbridge and
26:22
Speaker 1: into the castle gate. In the hall, servants waited to
26:26
Speaker 1: receive her, and she was conducted forthwith to her room.
26:30
Speaker 1: The room we usually sat in as our drawing room,
26:33
Speaker 1: is long, having four windows that looked over the moat
26:36
Speaker 1: and drawbridge upon the forest scene I have just described.
26:40
Speaker 1: It is furnished in old carved oak, with large carved cabinets,
26:44
Speaker 1: and the chairs are cushioned with crimson utrect velvet. The
26:48
Speaker 1: walls are covered with tapestry and surrounded with great gold frames,
26:52
Speaker 1: the figures being as large as life in ancient and
26:55
Speaker 1: very curious costume, and the subjects represented are hunting, hawking,
27:00
Speaker 1: and generally festive. It is not too stately to be
27:03
Speaker 1: extremely comfortable. And here we had our tea for with
27:06
Speaker 1: his usual patriotic leanings, he insisted that the National Beverage
27:10
Speaker 1: should make its appearance regularly. With our coffee and chocolate.
27:14
Speaker 1: We sat here this night, and with candles lighted, were
27:17
Speaker 1: talking over the adventure of the evening. Madame Paradon and
27:21
Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de la Fontaine were both of our party. The
27:25
Speaker 1: young stranger had hardly lain down in her bed when
27:27
Speaker 1: she sank into a deep sleep, and those ladies had
27:30
Speaker 1: left her in the care of a servant. How do
27:33
Speaker 1: you like, our guest, I asked, as soon as Madame entered.
27:37
Speaker 1: Tell me all about her. I like her extremely, answered Madame.
27:41
Speaker 1: She is I almost think the prettiest creature I ever
27:45
Speaker 1: saw about your age, and so gentle and nice. She
27:49
Speaker 1: is absolutely beautiful through in mademoiselle, who had peeped for
27:53
Speaker 1: a moment into the stranger's room, and such a sweet voice,
27:57
Speaker 1: added Madame Paradon. Did you remark a woman in the
28:01
Speaker 1: carriage after it was set up again who did not
28:04
Speaker 1: get out, inquired Mademoiselle, but only looked from the window. No,
28:09
Speaker 1: we had not seen her. Then she described a hideous
28:12
Speaker 1: black woman with a sort of colored turban on her head,
28:16
Speaker 1: and who was gazing all the time from the carriage window,
28:18
Speaker 1: nodding and grinning derisively towards the ladies, with gleaming eyes
28:22
Speaker 1: and large white eyeballs, and her teeth set as if
28:25
Speaker 1: in fury. Did you remark what an ill looking pack
28:28
Speaker 1: of men the servants were, asked Madam, Yes, said my father,
28:34
Speaker 1: who had just come in. Ugly hang dog looking fellows
28:37
Speaker 1: as ever I beheld in my life. I hope they
28:40
Speaker 1: mayn't rob the poor lady in the forest. They are
28:44
Speaker 1: clever rogues. However, they got everything to rights in a minute.
28:48
Speaker 1: I dare say they are worn out with too long traveling,
28:51
Speaker 1: said Madam. Besides looking wicked, their faces were so strangely
28:56
Speaker 1: lean and dark and sullen. I am very curious, I own,
29:01
Speaker 1: but I dare say, the young lady will tell you
29:03
Speaker 1: all about it tomorrow, if she is sufficiently recovered. I
29:07
Speaker 1: don't think she will, said my father, with a mysterious
29:10
Speaker 1: smile and a little nod of his head, as if
29:13
Speaker 1: he knew more about it than he cared to tell us.
29:16
Speaker 1: This made us all the more inquisitive as to what
29:18
Speaker 1: had passed between him and the lady in the black velvet,
29:21
Speaker 1: in the brief but earnest interview that had immediately preceded
29:24
Speaker 1: her departure. We were scarcely alone when I entreated him
29:28
Speaker 1: to tell me. He did not need much pressing. There
29:32
Speaker 1: is no particular reason why I should not tell you.
29:36
Speaker 1: She expressed a reluctance to trouble us with the care
29:38
Speaker 1: of her daughter, saying she was in delicate health and nervous,
29:42
Speaker 1: but not subject to any kind of seizure. She volunteered that,
29:46
Speaker 1: nor to any allusion, being in fact perfectly sane. How
29:51
Speaker 1: very odd to say all that I interpolated. It was
29:55
Speaker 1: so unnecessary at all events, it was said, he laughed.
30:00
Speaker 1: And as you wish to know all that past, which
30:02
Speaker 1: was indeed very little, I tell you. She then said,
30:06
Speaker 1: I am making a long journey of vital importance. She
30:09
Speaker 1: emphasized the word rapid and secret. I shall return for
30:13
Speaker 1: my child in three months. In the meantime she will
30:16
Speaker 1: be silent as to who we are, whence we come,
30:18
Speaker 1: and whither we are traveling. That is all she said.
30:22
Speaker 1: She spoke very pure French. When she said the word secret.
30:26
Speaker 1: She paused for a few seconds, looking sternly, her eyes
30:30
Speaker 1: fixed on mine. I fancy she makes a great point
30:34
Speaker 1: of that. You saw how quickly she was gone. I
30:38
Speaker 1: hope I have not done a very foolish thing in
30:40
Speaker 1: taking charge of the young lady. For my part, I
30:43
Speaker 1: was delighted. I was longing to see and talk to her,
30:47
Speaker 1: and only waiting till the doctor should give me leave. You,
30:51
Speaker 1: who live in towns, can have no idea how great
30:53
Speaker 1: an event the introduction of a new friend is in
30:56
Speaker 1: such a solitude as surrounded us. The doctor did not
31:00
Speaker 1: arrive till nearly one o'clock. But I could no more
31:03
Speaker 1: have gone to my bed and slept than I could
31:05
Speaker 1: have overtaken on foot the carriage in which the princess
31:09
Speaker 1: in black velvet had driven away. When the physician came
31:12
Speaker 1: down to the drawing room, it was to report very
31:15
Speaker 1: favorably upon his patient. She was now sitting up, her
31:19
Speaker 1: pulse quite regular, apparently perfectly well. She had sustained no injury,
31:25
Speaker 1: and the little shock to her nerves had passed away
31:28
Speaker 1: quite harmlessly. There could be no harm certainly in my
31:31
Speaker 1: seeing her, if we both wished it. And with this permission,
31:35
Speaker 1: I sent forthwith to know whether she would allow me
31:38
Speaker 1: to visit her for a few minutes in her room.
31:41
Speaker 1: The servant returned immediately to say that she desired nothing more.
31:46
Speaker 1: You may be sure I was not long in availing
31:48
Speaker 1: myself of this permission. Our visitor lay in one of
31:52
Speaker 1: the handsomest rooms in the Schloss. It was perhaps a
31:56
Speaker 1: little stately. There was a somber piece of tapestry opposite
32:00
Speaker 1: the foot of the bed, representing Cleopatra with the asps
32:03
Speaker 1: to her bosom, and other solemn classic scenes were displayed
32:07
Speaker 1: a little faded upon the other walls. But there was
32:10
Speaker 1: gold carving and rich and varied color enough in the
32:13
Speaker 1: other decorations of the room to more than redeem the
32:16
Speaker 1: gloom of the old tapestry. There were candles at the bedside.
32:21
Speaker 1: She was sitting up, her slender, pretty figure enveloped in
32:24
Speaker 1: a soft silk dressing gown embroidered with flowers and lined
32:28
Speaker 1: with thick quilted silk, which her mother had thrown over
32:31
Speaker 1: her feet as she lay upon the ground. What was
32:34
Speaker 1: it that, as I reached the bedside and had just
32:37
Speaker 1: begun my little greeting, struck me dumb in a moment,
32:40
Speaker 1: and made me recoil a step or two from before her.
32:44
Speaker 1: I will tell you I saw the very face which
32:47
Speaker 1: had visited me in my childhood at night, which remained
32:50
Speaker 1: so fixed in my memory, and on which I had,
32:52
Speaker 1: for so many years, so often ruminated with horror when
32:55
Speaker 1: no one suspected of what I was thinking. It was pretty,
32:59
Speaker 1: even beauty, and when I first beheld it wore the
33:02
Speaker 1: same melancholy expression, but this almost instantly lighted into a strange,
33:07
Speaker 1: fixed smile of recognition. There was a silence of fully
33:11
Speaker 1: a minute, and then at length she spoke. I could
33:14
Speaker 1: not how wonderful, she exclaimed, twelve years ago, I saw
33:20
Speaker 1: your face in a dream, and it has haunted me
33:22
Speaker 1: ever since. Wonderful, indeed, I repeated, overcoming with an effort
33:28
Speaker 1: to horror that had for a time suspended my utterances.
33:32
Speaker 1: Twelve years ago, in vision or reality, I certainly saw you.
33:37
Speaker 1: I could not forget your face. It has remained before
33:40
Speaker 1: my eyes ever since. Her smile had softened. Whatever I
33:44
Speaker 1: had fancied strange in it was gone, and it and
33:47
Speaker 1: her dimpling cheeks were now delightfully pretty and intelligent. I
33:52
Speaker 1: felt reassured, and continued more in the vein which hospitality indicated,
33:56
Speaker 1: to bid her welcome, and to tell her how much
33:58
Speaker 1: pleasure her accidental arrival had given us all, and especially
34:02
Speaker 1: what a happiness it was to me. I took her
34:05
Speaker 1: hand as I spoke. I was a little shy, as
34:09
Speaker 1: lonely people are, but the situation made me eloquent and
34:12
Speaker 1: even bold. She pressed my hand, she laid hers upon it,
34:17
Speaker 1: and her eyes glowed as looking hastily into mine, she
34:20
Speaker 1: smiled again and blushed. She answered my welcome very prettily.
34:26
Speaker 1: I sat down beside her, still wondering, and she said,
34:30
Speaker 1: I must tell you my vision about you. It is
34:32
Speaker 1: so very strange that you and I should have had
34:35
Speaker 1: each of the other, so vivid a dream, that each
34:37
Speaker 1: should have seen I you and you me looking as
34:39
Speaker 1: we do now, when, of course we both were mere children.
34:43
Speaker 1: I was a child about six years old, and I
34:46
Speaker 1: awoke from a confused and troubled dream, and found myself
34:49
Speaker 1: in a room unlike my nursery, wainscoted clumsily in some
34:53
Speaker 1: dark wood, and with cupboards and bedsteads and chairs and
34:57
Speaker 1: benches placed about it. The heads were, I thought, all empty,
35:02
Speaker 1: and the room itself without any one but myself in it.
35:05
Speaker 1: And I, after looking about me for some time and
35:08
Speaker 1: admiring especially an iron candlestick with two branches, which I
35:11
Speaker 1: should certainly know, again, crept under one of the beds
35:14
Speaker 1: to reach the window. But as I got from under
35:17
Speaker 1: the bed, I heard some one crying and looking up.
35:20
Speaker 1: While I was still upon my knees, I saw you,
35:23
Speaker 1: most assuredly, you as I see you now, a beautiful
35:27
Speaker 1: young lady with golden hair and large blue eyes and lips,
35:31
Speaker 1: your lips, you as you are here. Your looks won me.
35:35
Speaker 1: I climbed on the bed and put my arms about you,
35:38
Speaker 1: and I think we both fell asleep. I was aroused
35:41
Speaker 1: by a scream. You were sitting up screaming. I was
35:45
Speaker 1: frightened and slipped down upon the ground, and it seemed
35:49
Speaker 1: to me lost consciousness for a moment, And when I
35:51
Speaker 1: came to myself, I was again in my nursery at home.
35:55
Speaker 1: Your face I have never forgotten, since I could not
35:59
Speaker 1: be misled by mere resemblance. You are the lady whom
36:03
Speaker 1: I saw. Then it was now my turn to relate
36:06
Speaker 1: my corresponding vision, which I did to the undisguised wonder
36:10
Speaker 1: of my new acquaintance. I don't know which should be
36:13
Speaker 1: most afraid of the other, she said, again, smiling. If
36:17
Speaker 1: you were less pretty, I think I should be very
36:19
Speaker 1: much afraid of you. But being as you are, and
36:21
Speaker 1: you and I both so young, I feel only that
36:24
Speaker 1: I have made your acquaintance twelve years ago, and have
36:26
Speaker 1: already a right to your intimacy at all events. It
36:30
Speaker 1: does seem as if we were destined from our earliest
36:33
Speaker 1: childhood to be friends. I wonder whether you feel as
36:36
Speaker 1: strangely drawn towards me as I do to you. I
36:39
Speaker 1: have never had a friend? Shall I find one? Now?
36:42
Speaker 1: She sighed, and her fine dark eyes gazed passionately on me. Now,
36:48
Speaker 1: the truth is, I felt rather unaccountably towards the beautiful stranger.
36:53
Speaker 1: I did feel, as she said, drawn towards her. But
36:56
Speaker 1: there was also something of repulsion in this ambiguous feeling. However,
37:01
Speaker 1: the sense of attraction immensely prevailed. She interested and won me.
37:06
Speaker 1: She was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging. I perceive
37:11
Speaker 1: now something of languor and exhaustion stealing over her, and
37:14
Speaker 1: hastened to bid her good night. The doctor thinks, I
37:18
Speaker 1: added that you ought to have a maid to sit
37:20
Speaker 1: up with you tonight. One of ours is waiting, and
37:23
Speaker 1: you will find her a very useful and quiet creature.
37:26
Speaker 1: How kind of you. But I could not sleep. I
37:29
Speaker 1: never could with an attendant in the room. I shan't
37:32
Speaker 1: require any assistance, and shall I confess my weakness. I
37:36
Speaker 1: am haunted with a terror of robbers. Our house was
37:40
Speaker 1: robbed once and two servants murdered. So I always locked
37:43
Speaker 1: my door. It has become a habit. And you look
37:46
Speaker 1: so kind. I know you will forgive me. I see
37:50
Speaker 1: there is a key in the lock. She held me
37:52
Speaker 1: close in her pretty arms for a moment and whispered
37:54
Speaker 1: in my ear, good night, darling. It is very hard
37:57
Speaker 1: to part with you, but good night tomorrow, but not early.
38:01
Speaker 1: I shall see you again. She sank back on a
38:04
Speaker 1: pillow with a sigh, and her fine eyes followed me
38:07
Speaker 1: with a fond and melancholy gaze, and she murmured again,
38:10
Speaker 1: good night, dear friend. Young people like and even love
38:14
Speaker 1: on impulse. I was flattered by the evident, though as
38:18
Speaker 1: yet undeserved, fondness she showed me. I liked the confidence
38:23
Speaker 1: with which she at once received me. She was determined
38:26
Speaker 1: that we should be very near friends. Next day came
38:30
Speaker 1: and we met again. I was delighted with my companion,
38:34
Speaker 1: that is to say, in many respects. Her looks lost
38:38
Speaker 1: nothing in daylight. She was certainly the most beautiful creature
38:41
Speaker 1: I had ever seen, and the unpleasant remembrance of the
38:44
Speaker 1: face presented in my early dream had lost the effect
38:47
Speaker 1: of the first unexpected recognition. She confessed that she had
38:51
Speaker 1: experienced a similar shock on seeing me, and precisely the
38:54
Speaker 1: same faint antipathy that had mingled with my admiration of her.
38:59
Speaker 1: We now laughed together over our momentary horrors for her
39:03
Speaker 1: habits a saunter. I told you that I was charmed
39:06
Speaker 1: with her in most particulars. There were some that did
39:09
Speaker 1: not please me so well. She was above the middle
39:13
Speaker 1: height of women. I shall begin by describing her. She
39:17
Speaker 1: was slender and wonderfully graceful, except that her movements were languid,
39:23
Speaker 1: very languid. Indeed, there was nothing in her appearance to
39:26
Speaker 1: indicate an invalid. Her complexion was rich and brilliant, Her
39:30
Speaker 1: features were small and beautifully formed, her eyes large, dark
39:35
Speaker 1: and lustrous. Her hair was quite wonderful. I never saw
39:38
Speaker 1: hair so magnificently thick and long. When it was down
39:41
Speaker 1: about her shoulders, I have often placed my hands under
39:44
Speaker 1: it and laughed with wonder at its weight. It was
39:47
Speaker 1: exquisitely fine and soft, and in color a rich, very
39:51
Speaker 1: dark brown, with something of gold. I loved to let
39:54
Speaker 1: it down, tumbling with its own weight. As in her room,
39:58
Speaker 1: she lay back in her chair, toped, talking in her sweet,
40:00
Speaker 1: low voice. I used to fold and braid it, and
40:03
Speaker 1: spread it out and play with it. Heavens if I
40:07
Speaker 1: had but known all I said. There were particulars which
40:11
Speaker 1: did not please me. I have told you that her
40:14
Speaker 1: confidence won me the first night I saw her. But
40:17
Speaker 1: I found that she exercised with respect to herself, her mother,
40:20
Speaker 1: her history, everything in fact connected with her life, plans
40:24
Speaker 1: and people, and ever wakeful reserve. I dare say I
40:29
Speaker 1: was unreasonable. Perhaps I was wrong. I dare say I
40:32
Speaker 1: ought to have respected the solemn injunction laid upon my
40:35
Speaker 1: father by the stately lady in black velvet. But curiosity
40:39
Speaker 1: is a restless and unscrupulous passion, and no one girl
40:42
Speaker 1: can endure with patience that hers should be baffled by another.
40:47
Speaker 1: What harm could it do any one to tell me
40:49
Speaker 1: what I so ardently desired to know? Had she no
40:53
Speaker 1: trust in my good sense or honor? Why would she
40:56
Speaker 1: not believe me when I assured her so solemnly that
40:59
Speaker 1: I would not vulge one syllable of what she told
41:01
Speaker 1: me to any mortal breathing. There was a coldness, it
41:05
Speaker 1: seemed to me beyond her years, in her smiling, melancholy
41:09
Speaker 1: persistent refusal to afford me the least ray of light.
41:13
Speaker 1: I cannot say we quarreled upon this point, for she
41:15
Speaker 1: would not quarrel upon any It was, of course very
41:20
Speaker 1: unfair of me to press her very ill bred, but
41:23
Speaker 1: I really could not help it, and I might just
41:25
Speaker 1: as well have let it alone. What she did tell
41:28
Speaker 1: me amounted, in my unconscionable estimation, to nothing. It was
41:33
Speaker 1: all summed up in three very vague disclosures. First, her
41:36
Speaker 1: name was Carmilla. Second, her family was very ancient and noble. Third,
41:43
Speaker 1: her home lay in the direction of the west. She
41:46
Speaker 1: would not tell me the name of her family, nor
41:49
Speaker 1: their armorial bearings, nor the name of their estate, nor
41:52
Speaker 1: even that of the country they lived in. You are
41:55
Speaker 1: not to suppose that I worried her incessantly on these subjects.
42:00
Speaker 1: I watched opportunity, and rather insinuated than urged my inquiries.
42:05
Speaker 1: Once or twice. Indeed, I did attack her more directly,
42:09
Speaker 1: But no matter what my tactics, utter failure was invariably
42:13
Speaker 1: the result. Reproaches and caresses were all lost upon her.
42:18
Speaker 1: But I must add this that her evasion was conducted
42:21
Speaker 1: with so pretty a melancholy and deprecation, with so many
42:25
Speaker 1: and even passionate declarations of her liking for me and
42:28
Speaker 1: trust in my honor, and with so many promises that
42:31
Speaker 1: I should at last know all that I could not
42:33
Speaker 1: find it in my heart long to be offended with her.
42:37
Speaker 1: She used to place her pretty arms about my neck,
42:39
Speaker 1: draw me to her, and laying her cheek to mine,
42:42
Speaker 1: murmur with her lips near my ear. Dearest, your little
42:45
Speaker 1: heart is wounded. Think me not cruel, because I obey
42:48
Speaker 1: the irresistible law of my strength and weakness. If your
42:51
Speaker 1: dear heart is wounded. My wild heart bleeds with yours
42:56
Speaker 1: in the rapture of my enormous humiliation. I live in
42:59
Speaker 1: your warm life, and you shall die, Die sweetly, die
43:03
Speaker 1: into mine. I cannot help it. As I draw near
43:07
Speaker 1: to you, you, in your turn, will draw near to
43:09
Speaker 1: others and learn the rapture of that cruelty which yet
43:13
Speaker 1: is love. So for a while, seek to know no
43:16
Speaker 1: more of me in mine, but trust me with all
43:19
Speaker 1: your loving spirit. And when she had spoken such a rhapsody,
43:22
Speaker 1: she would press me more closely in her trembling embrace,
43:25
Speaker 1: and her lips in soft kisses, gently glow upon my cheek.
43:29
Speaker 1: Her agitations and her language were unintelligible to me. From
43:34
Speaker 1: these foolish embraces, which were not of very frequent occurrence,
43:37
Speaker 1: I must allow, I used to wish to extricate myself,
43:41
Speaker 1: but my energies seemed to fail me. Her murmured words
43:44
Speaker 1: sounded like a lullaby in my ear, and soothed my
43:47
Speaker 1: resistance into a trance, from which I only seemed to
43:50
Speaker 1: recover myself When she withdrew her arms in these mysterious moods,
43:55
Speaker 1: I did not like her. I experienced a strange, tumultuous
43:59
Speaker 1: excitement that was pleasurable ever and anon mingled with a
44:02
Speaker 1: vague sense of fear and disgust. I had no distinct
44:06
Speaker 1: thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was
44:09
Speaker 1: conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. This,
44:14
Speaker 1: I know is paradox, but I can make no other
44:17
Speaker 1: attempt to explain the feeling. I now write, after an
44:21
Speaker 1: interval of more than ten years, with a trembling hand,
44:24
Speaker 1: with a confused and horrible recollection of certain occurrences and
44:28
Speaker 1: situations in the ordeal through which I was unconsciously passing,
44:33
Speaker 1: though with a vivid and very sharp remembrance of the
44:35
Speaker 1: main current of my story. But I suspect in all
44:39
Speaker 1: lives there are certain emotional scenes, those in which our
44:42
Speaker 1: passions have been most wildly and terribly roused, that are,
44:45
Speaker 1: of all others, the most vaguely and dimly remembered. Sometimes,
44:50
Speaker 1: after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion
44:53
Speaker 1: would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure,
44:56
Speaker 1: renewed again and again, blushing softly, gazing in my face
45:00
Speaker 1: with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that
45:03
Speaker 1: her dress rose and fell with a tumultuous respiration. It
45:07
Speaker 1: was like the ardor of a lover. It embarrassed me.
45:10
Speaker 1: It was hateful and yet overpowering, And with gloating eyes,
45:13
Speaker 1: she drew me to her, and her hot lips traveled
45:16
Speaker 1: along my cheek and kisses, and she would whisper, almost
45:19
Speaker 1: in sobs. You are mine, you shall be mine. You
45:22
Speaker 1: and I are one forever. Then she had thrown herself
45:26
Speaker 1: back in her chair, with her small hands over her eyes,
45:30
Speaker 1: leaving me trembling. Are we related? I used to ask,
45:34
Speaker 1: what can you mean by all this? I remind you,
45:37
Speaker 1: perhaps of someone whom you love, but you must not.
45:40
Speaker 1: I hate it. I don't know you. I don't know
45:42
Speaker 1: myself when you look so and talk. So she used
45:46
Speaker 1: to sigh at my vehemence, then turn away and drop
45:49
Speaker 1: my hand. Respecting these very extraordinary manifestations, I strove in
45:53
Speaker 1: vain to form any satisfactory theory. I could not refer
45:57
Speaker 1: them to affectation or trick. It was unmistakably the momentary
46:01
Speaker 1: breaking out of suppressed instinct and emotion. Was she, notwithstanding
46:06
Speaker 1: her mother's volunteered denial, subject to brief visitations of insanity?
46:11
Speaker 1: Or was there here a disguise in a romance. I
46:14
Speaker 1: had read in old story books of such things. What
46:18
Speaker 1: if a boyish lover had found his way into the
46:20
Speaker 1: house and sought to prosecute his suit in masquerade with
46:24
Speaker 1: the assistance of a clever old adventuress. But there were
46:27
Speaker 1: many things against this hypothesis. Highly interesting as it was
46:31
Speaker 1: to my vanity, I could boast of no little attentions,
46:34
Speaker 1: such as masculine gallantry delights to offer. Between these passionate
46:39
Speaker 1: moments there were long intervals of commonplace, of gaiety, of
46:43
Speaker 1: brooding melancholy, during which, except that I detected her eyes
46:47
Speaker 1: so full of melancholy fire following me, at times I
46:50
Speaker 1: might have been as nothing to her. Except in these
46:54
Speaker 1: brief periods of mysterious excitement. Her ways were girlish, and
46:57
Speaker 1: there was always a languor about her, quite incompatible with
47:00
Speaker 1: a masculine system in a state of health. In some respects,
47:04
Speaker 1: her habits were odd, perhaps not so singular in the
47:08
Speaker 1: opinion of a town lady like you, as they appeared
47:11
Speaker 1: to us rustic people. She used to come down very late,
47:15
Speaker 1: generally not till one o'clock. She would then take a
47:18
Speaker 1: cup of chocolate but eat nothing. We then went out
47:21
Speaker 1: for a walk, which was a mere saunter, and she
47:24
Speaker 1: seemed almost immediately exhausted, and either returned to the schloss
47:28
Speaker 1: or sat on one of the benches that were placed
47:30
Speaker 1: here and there among the trees. This was a bodily
47:34
Speaker 1: languor in which her mind did not sympathize. She was
47:38
Speaker 1: always an animated talker and very intelligent. She sometimes alluded
47:43
Speaker 1: for a moment to her own home, or mentioned an
47:46
Speaker 1: adventure or situation, or an early recollection which indicated a
47:50
Speaker 1: people of strange manners, and described customs of which we
47:53
Speaker 1: knew nothing. I gathered from these chance hints that her
47:57
Speaker 1: native country was much more remote than I had at
47:59
Speaker 1: first found. As we sat thus one afternoon under the trees,
48:03
Speaker 1: a funeral passed us by. It was that of a
48:06
Speaker 1: pretty young girl whom I had often seen, the daughter
48:10
Speaker 1: of one of the rangers of the forest. The poor
48:13
Speaker 1: man was walking behind the coffin of his darling. She
48:16
Speaker 1: was his only child, and he looked quite heart broken.
48:19
Speaker 1: Peasants walking two and two came behind. They were singing
48:23
Speaker 1: a funeral him. I rose to mark my respect as
48:26
Speaker 1: they passed, and joined in the hymn. They were very
48:29
Speaker 1: sweetly singing. My companion shook me a little roughly, and
48:33
Speaker 1: I turned surprised. She said, brusquely. Don't you perceive how
48:37
Speaker 1: discordant that is? I think it very sweet. On the contrary,
48:42
Speaker 1: I answered, vexed at the interruption, and very uncomfortable lest
48:46
Speaker 1: the people who composed the little procession should observe and
48:48
Speaker 1: resent what was passing. I resumed therefore instantly, and was
48:53
Speaker 1: again interrupted. You pierce my years, said Carmilla, almost angrily,
48:59
Speaker 1: and stopping her ears with her tiny fingers. Besides, how
49:03
Speaker 1: can you tell that your religion and mine are the same.
49:06
Speaker 1: Your forms wound me, and I hate funerals. What a fuss?
49:11
Speaker 1: Why you must die? Every one must die, and all
49:15
Speaker 1: are happier when they do come home. My father has
49:19
Speaker 1: gone on with the clergyman to the churchyard. I thought
49:23
Speaker 1: you knew she was to be buried to day. She
49:27
Speaker 1: I don't trouble my head about peasants. I don't know
49:30
Speaker 1: who she is, answered Carmilla, with a flash from her
49:33
Speaker 1: fine eyes. She is the poor girl who fancied she
49:37
Speaker 1: saw a ghost a fortnight ago, and has been dying
49:40
Speaker 1: ever since till yesterday. When she expired. Tell me nothing
49:45
Speaker 1: about ghosts. I shan't sleep tonight if you do. I
49:49
Speaker 1: hope there is no plague or fever coming. All this
49:52
Speaker 1: looks very like it, I continued. The Swineherd's young wife
49:57
Speaker 1: died only a week ago, and she thought something s
50:00
Speaker 1: eased her by the throat as she lay in her
50:02
Speaker 1: bed and nearly strangled. Her. Papa says, such horrible fancies
50:06
Speaker 1: do accompany some forms of fever. She was quite well
50:10
Speaker 1: the day before, she sank afterwards and died before a
50:14
Speaker 1: week well. Her funeral is over. I hope and her
50:19
Speaker 1: hymn sung, and our ears shan't be tortured with that
50:21
Speaker 1: discord and jargon. It has made me nervous. Sit down
50:26
Speaker 1: here beside me, Sit close, hold my hand, press a
50:30
Speaker 1: hard heart harder. We had moved a little back and
50:33
Speaker 1: had come to another seat. She sat down. Her face
50:38
Speaker 1: underwent a change that alarmed and even terrified me. For
50:41
Speaker 1: a moment, it darkened and became horribly livid. Her teeth
50:45
Speaker 1: and hands were clenched, and she frowned and compressed her
50:48
Speaker 1: lips while she stared down upon the ground at her
50:51
Speaker 1: feet and trembled all over with a continued shudder, as
50:54
Speaker 1: irrepressible as aig. You. All her energies seemed strained to
50:58
Speaker 1: suppress a fit with which she was then breathlessly tugging,
51:02
Speaker 1: And at length a low, convulsive cry of suffering broke
51:04
Speaker 1: from her, and gradually the hysteria subsided. There that comes
51:10
Speaker 1: of strangling people with hymns. She said, at last, hold me,
51:14
Speaker 1: hold me still, it is passing away, And so gradually
51:19
Speaker 1: it did, and perhaps to dissipate the somber impression which
51:22
Speaker 1: the spectacle had left upon me, she became unusually animated
51:26
Speaker 1: and chatty, and so we got home. This was the
51:30
Speaker 1: first time I had seen her exhibit any definable symptoms
51:33
Speaker 1: of that delicacy of health which her mother had spoken of.
51:36
Speaker 1: It was the first time, also I had seen her
51:39
Speaker 1: exhibit anything like temper. Both passed away like a summer cloud,
51:44
Speaker 1: and never but once afterwards did I witness on her
51:46
Speaker 1: part a momentary sign of anger. I will tell you
51:50
Speaker 1: how it happened. She and I were looking out of
51:53
Speaker 1: one of the long drawing room windows when there entered
51:56
Speaker 1: the courtyard over the drawbridge a figure of a wanderer
51:59
Speaker 1: whom I knew very well. He used to visit the
52:02
Speaker 1: Schloss generally twice a year. It was the figure of
52:05
Speaker 1: a hunchback with the sharp, lean features that generally accompany deformity.
52:11
Speaker 1: He wore a pointed black beard, and he was smiling
52:13
Speaker 1: from ear to ear, showing his white fangs. He was
52:17
Speaker 1: dressed in buff, black and scarlet, and crossed with more
52:21
Speaker 1: straps and belts than I could count, from which hung
52:24
Speaker 1: all manner of things. Behind he carried a magic lantern
52:28
Speaker 1: and two boxes, which I well knew, in one of
52:31
Speaker 1: which was a salamander, and in the other a mandric.
52:35
Speaker 1: These monsters used to make my father laugh. They were
52:38
Speaker 1: compounded of parts of monkeys, parrots, squirrels, fish and hedgehogs,
52:44
Speaker 1: dried and stitched together with great neatness and startling effect.
52:48
Speaker 1: He had a fiddle, a box of conjuring apparatus, a
52:51
Speaker 1: pair of foils and masks attached to his belt, several
52:54
Speaker 1: other mysterious cases dangling about him, and a black staff
52:58
Speaker 1: with copper farrells in his hand. His companion was a rough,
53:02
Speaker 1: spare dog that followed at his heels, but stopped short,
53:06
Speaker 1: suspiciously at the drawbridge, and in a little while began
53:09
Speaker 1: to howl. Dismally. In the meantime, the Mountebank, standing in
53:13
Speaker 1: the midst of the courtyard, raised his grotesque hat and
53:17
Speaker 1: made us a very ceremonious bow, paying his compliments very volubly,
53:21
Speaker 1: inexecrable French and German not much better. Then, disengaging his fiddle,
53:27
Speaker 1: he began to scrape a lively air, to which he
53:29
Speaker 1: sang with a merry discord, dancing with ludicrous airs and
53:32
Speaker 1: activity that made me laugh in spite of the dog's howling.
53:37
Speaker 1: Then he advanced to the window, with many smiles and salutations,
53:41
Speaker 1: and his hat in his left hand, his fiddle under
53:43
Speaker 1: his arm, and with a fluency that never took breath,
53:46
Speaker 1: he gabbled a long advertisement of all his accomplishments, and
53:50
Speaker 1: the resources of the various arts which he placed at
53:52
Speaker 1: our service, and the curiosities and entertainments which it was
53:56
Speaker 1: in his power at our bidding to display. Will your
54:00
Speaker 1: ladyships be pleased to buy an amulet against the upire
54:03
Speaker 1: which is going like the wolf I hear through these woods,
54:06
Speaker 1: he said, dropping his hat on the pavement. They are
54:10
Speaker 1: dying of it right and left. And here is a
54:12
Speaker 1: charm that never fails, only pinned to the pillow, and
54:15
Speaker 1: you may laugh in his face. These charms consisted of
54:18
Speaker 1: oblong slips of vellum with cabalistic ciphers and diagrams upon them.
54:23
Speaker 1: Carmilla instantly purchased one, and so did I. He was
54:28
Speaker 1: looking up, and we were smiling down upon him. Amused,
54:31
Speaker 1: at least I can answer for myself. His piercing black eye,
54:36
Speaker 1: as he looked up in our faces, seemed to detect
54:38
Speaker 1: something that fixed for a moment his curiosity. In an instant,
54:42
Speaker 1: he unrolled a leather case full of all manner of
54:44
Speaker 1: odd little steel instruments. See here, my lady, he said,
54:49
Speaker 1: displaying it and addressing me, I profess, among other things,
54:53
Speaker 1: less useful, the art of dentistry, plague. Take the dog,
54:58
Speaker 1: he interpolated. Silence. Beast, he howls, so that your ladyships
55:04
Speaker 1: can scarcely hear a word, Your noble friend, the young
55:08
Speaker 1: lady at your right has the sharpest tooth, long, thin,
55:11
Speaker 1: pointed like an awl, like a needle. Ha. Ha. With
55:16
Speaker 1: my sharp and long sight, as I look up, I
55:19
Speaker 1: have seen it distinctly. Now if it happens to hurt
55:21
Speaker 1: the young lady, and I think it must here, Am
55:24
Speaker 1: I here? Are my file, my punch, my nippers. I
55:27
Speaker 1: will make it round and blunt. If her ladyship pleases
55:31
Speaker 1: no longer the tooth of a fish, but of a
55:33
Speaker 1: beautiful young lady as she is. Hey is the young
55:37
Speaker 1: lady displeased? Have I been too bold? Have I offended her?
55:43
Speaker 1: The young lady indeed looked very angry as she drew
55:46
Speaker 1: back from the window. How dares that mountebank insult us? So?
55:51
Speaker 1: Where is your father? I shall demand redress from him?
55:56
Speaker 1: My father would have had the wretch tied up to
55:58
Speaker 1: the pump and flogged with a cartwhih ship, and burnt
56:00
Speaker 1: to the bones with the cattle brand. She retired from
56:04
Speaker 1: the window a step or two and sat down, and
56:07
Speaker 1: had hardly lost sight of the offender when her wrath
56:10
Speaker 1: subsided as suddenly as it had risen, and she gradually
56:13
Speaker 1: recovered her usual tone and seemed to forget the little
56:16
Speaker 1: hunchback and his follies. My father was out of spirits
56:20
Speaker 1: that evening on coming, and he told us that there
56:23
Speaker 1: had been another case very similar to the two fatal
56:26
Speaker 1: ones which had lately occurred. The sister of a young
56:29
Speaker 1: peasant on his estate only a mile away, was very
56:32
Speaker 1: ill had been, as she described it attacked very nearly
56:36
Speaker 1: in the same way, and was now slowly but steadily sinking.
56:40
Speaker 1: All this, said my father, is strictly referable to natural causes.
56:45
Speaker 1: These poor people infect one another with their superstitions, and
56:49
Speaker 1: so repeat in imagination the images of terror that have
56:52
Speaker 1: infested their neighbors. But that very circumstance frightens one horribly,
56:57
Speaker 1: said Carmilla. How so, inquired my father. I am so
57:03
Speaker 1: afraid of fancying I see such things. I think it
57:06
Speaker 1: would be as bad as reality. We are in God's hands.
57:10
Speaker 1: Nothing can happen without his permission, and all will end
57:13
Speaker 1: well for those who love him. He is our faithful creator.
57:17
Speaker 1: He has made us all and will take care of us.
57:20
Speaker 1: Creator Nature, said the young lady in answer to my
57:24
Speaker 1: gentle father, And this disease that invades the country is
57:28
Speaker 1: natural nature. All things proceed from nature, don't they? All
57:35
Speaker 1: things in the heaven, in the earth and under the earth,
57:38
Speaker 1: act and live as nature ordains. I think so. The
57:42
Speaker 1: doctor said he would come here to day, said my father,
57:45
Speaker 1: after a silence. I want to know what he thinks
57:49
Speaker 1: about it, and what he thinks we had better do
57:52
Speaker 1: doctors never did me any good, said Carmilla. Then you
57:56
Speaker 1: have been ill, I asked, more ill than ever you were?
58:00
Speaker 1: She answered long ago, Yes, a long time I suffered
58:06
Speaker 1: from this very illness. But I forget all but my
58:09
Speaker 1: pain and weakness, and they were not so bad as
58:11
Speaker 1: are suffered in other diseases. You were very young, then,
58:16
Speaker 1: I dare say, let us talk no more of it.
58:19
Speaker 1: You would not wound a friend. She looked languidly in
58:22
Speaker 1: my eyes, and passed her arm round my waist lovingly,
58:25
Speaker 1: and led me out of the room. My father was
58:28
Speaker 1: busy over some papers near the window. Why does your
58:32
Speaker 1: papa like to frighten us, said the pretty girl, with
58:35
Speaker 1: a sigh and a little shudder. He doesn't, dear Carmilla.
58:39
Speaker 1: It is the very furthest thing from his mind. Are
58:42
Speaker 1: you afraid, dearest? I should be very much if I
58:46
Speaker 1: fancied there was any real danger of my being attacked
58:49
Speaker 1: as those poor people were. You are afraid to die? Yes,
58:54
Speaker 1: every one is, but to die as lovers may to
58:57
Speaker 1: die together, so that they may live together. Girls are
59:01
Speaker 1: caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally
59:04
Speaker 1: butterflies when the summer comes. But in the meantime, there
59:07
Speaker 1: are grubs and larvae, don't you see, each with their
59:10
Speaker 1: peculiar propensities, necessities and structure, So says Monsieur Bauffawn in
59:16
Speaker 1: his big book. In the next room, later in the day,
59:19
Speaker 1: the doctor came and was closeted with Papa for some time.
59:24
Speaker 1: He was a skillful man of sixty and upwards. He
59:27
Speaker 1: wore powder and shaved his pale face as smooth as
59:30
Speaker 1: a pumpkin. He and Papa emerged from the room together,
59:34
Speaker 1: and I heard Papa laugh and say as they came out, Well,
59:38
Speaker 1: I do wonder at a wise man like you, what
59:41
Speaker 1: do you say to hippogriffs and dragons. The doctor was
59:44
Speaker 1: smiling and made answer, shaking his head. Nevertheless, life and
59:48
Speaker 1: death are mysterious states, and we know little of the
59:51
Speaker 1: resources of either. And so they walked on, and I
59:54
Speaker 1: heard no more. I did not then know what the
59:57
Speaker 1: doctor had been broaching, but I think I guess it now.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: V a wonderful likeness this evening, there arrived from Gratz,
1:00:04
Speaker 1: the Grave, dark faced son of the picture cleaner, with
1:00:07
Speaker 1: a horse and cart laden with two large packing cases,
1:00:11
Speaker 1: having many pictures in each. It was a journey of
1:00:14
Speaker 1: ten leagues, and whenever a messenger arrived at the Schloss
1:00:17
Speaker 1: from our little capital of Gratz, we used to crowd
1:00:20
Speaker 1: about him in the hall to hear the news. This
1:00:23
Speaker 1: arrival created in our secluded quarters quite a sensation. The
1:00:28
Speaker 1: cases remained in the hall, and the messenger was taken
1:00:31
Speaker 1: charge of by the servants till he had eaten his supper.
1:00:35
Speaker 1: Then with assistants and armed with hammer, ripping chisel and
1:00:38
Speaker 1: turn's crew, he met us in the hall where we
1:00:41
Speaker 1: had assembled to witness the unpacking of the cases. Carmilla
1:00:45
Speaker 1: sat looking listlessly on while one after the other the
1:00:48
Speaker 1: old pictures, nearly all portraits which had undergone the process
1:00:52
Speaker 1: of renovation, were brought to light. My mother was of
1:00:55
Speaker 1: an old Hungarian family, and most of these pictures, which
1:00:59
Speaker 1: were about to be rest store to their places, had
1:01:01
Speaker 1: come to us through her. My father had a list
1:01:04
Speaker 1: in his hand, from which he read as the artist
1:01:07
Speaker 1: rummaged out the corresponding numbers. I don't know that the
1:01:11
Speaker 1: pictures were very good, but they were undoubtedly very old,
1:01:15
Speaker 1: and some of them very curious. Also, they had, for
1:01:19
Speaker 1: the most part the merit of being now seen by me.
1:01:22
Speaker 1: I may say, for the first time, for the smoke
1:01:25
Speaker 1: and dust of time had all but obliterated them. There
1:01:28
Speaker 1: is a picture that I have not seen yet, said
1:01:30
Speaker 1: my father. In one corner at the top of it
1:01:34
Speaker 1: is the name as well as I could read, Marcia Karnstein,
1:01:38
Speaker 1: and the date sixteen ninety eight. And I am curious
1:01:41
Speaker 1: to see how it has turned out. I remembered it.
1:01:43
Speaker 1: It was a small picture, about a foot and a
1:01:46
Speaker 1: half high and nearly square, without a frame, but it
1:01:49
Speaker 1: was so blackened by age that I could not make
1:01:51
Speaker 1: it out. The artist now produced it with evident pride.
1:01:56
Speaker 1: It was quite beautiful. It was startling. It seemed to live.
1:02:01
Speaker 1: It was the effigy of Carmilla. Carmilla, Dear, here is
1:02:05
Speaker 1: an absolute miracle. Here you are living, smiling, ready to
1:02:10
Speaker 1: speak in this picture. Isn't it beautiful? Papa? And see
1:02:16
Speaker 1: even the little mole on her throat. My father laughed
1:02:20
Speaker 1: and said, certainly, it is a wonderful likeness. But he
1:02:23
Speaker 1: looked away, and, to my surprise, seemed but little struck
1:02:26
Speaker 1: by it, and went on talking to the picture cleaner,
1:02:28
Speaker 1: who was also something of an artist, and discoursed with
1:02:31
Speaker 1: intelligence about the portraits or other works which his art
1:02:35
Speaker 1: had just brought into light and color, while I was
1:02:38
Speaker 1: more and more lost in wonder the more I looked
1:02:40
Speaker 1: at the picture. Will you let me hang this picture
1:02:43
Speaker 1: in my room, Papa, I asked, certainly, dear, said he, smiling.
1:02:49
Speaker 1: I'm very glad you think it so like. It must
1:02:52
Speaker 1: be prettier even than I thought it, if it is.
1:02:55
Speaker 1: The young lady did not acknowledge this pretty speech, did
1:02:58
Speaker 1: not seem to hear it. She was leaning back in
1:03:01
Speaker 1: her seat, her fine eyes under their long lashes, gazing
1:03:04
Speaker 1: on me in contemplation, and she smiled in a kind
1:03:07
Speaker 1: of rapture. And now you can read quite plainly the
1:03:10
Speaker 1: name that is written in the corner. It is not Marcia.
1:03:14
Speaker 1: It looks as if it was done in gold. The
1:03:17
Speaker 1: name is mere Kaala, Countess Carnstein. And this is a
1:03:20
Speaker 1: little coronet over and underneath a d. Sixteen ninety eight.
1:03:24
Speaker 1: I am descended from the Carnsteins, that is Mamma was Ah,
1:03:30
Speaker 1: said the lady languidly. So am I I think of
1:03:33
Speaker 1: very long descent, very ancient. Are there any Carnstein's living now?
1:03:39
Speaker 1: None who bear the name. I believe the family were ruined.
1:03:44
Speaker 1: I believe in some civil wars long ago, but the
1:03:47
Speaker 1: ruins of the castle are only about three miles away.
1:03:51
Speaker 1: How interesting, she said languidly. But see what beautiful moonlight.
1:03:56
Speaker 1: She glanced through the hall door, which stood a little open.
1:04:00
Speaker 1: Suppose you take a little ramble round the court and
1:04:03
Speaker 1: look down at the road and river. It is so
1:04:06
Speaker 1: like the night you came to us, I said, She sighed, smiling.
1:04:12
Speaker 1: She rose, and each with her arm about the other's waist,
1:04:15
Speaker 1: we walked out upon the pavement in silence. Slowly we
1:04:19
Speaker 1: walked down to the drawbridge, where the beautiful landscape opened
1:04:23
Speaker 1: before us. And so you were thinking of the night
1:04:26
Speaker 1: I came here, she almost whispered. Are you glad? I
1:04:30
Speaker 1: came delighted, dear Carmilla, I answered, And you asked for
1:04:35
Speaker 1: the picture you think like me to hang in your room.
1:04:38
Speaker 1: She murmured with a sigh, as she drew her arm
1:04:40
Speaker 1: closer about my waist and let her pretty head sink
1:04:43
Speaker 1: upon my shoulder. How romantic you are, Carmilla, I said.
1:04:48
Speaker 1: Whenever you tell me your story, it will be made
1:04:51
Speaker 1: up chiefly of some one great romance. She kissed me silently.
1:04:55
Speaker 1: I am sure, Carmilla, you have been in love that
1:04:58
Speaker 1: there is, at this this moment an affair of the
1:05:01
Speaker 1: heart going on. I have been in love with no one,
1:05:05
Speaker 1: and never shall, she whispered, unless it should be with you.
1:05:08
Speaker 1: How beautiful she looked in the moonlight. Shy and strange
1:05:12
Speaker 1: was the look with which she quickly hid her face
1:05:14
Speaker 1: in my neck and hair, with tumultuous eyes that seemed
1:05:18
Speaker 1: almost to sob, and pressed in mine a hand that trembled.
1:05:22
Speaker 1: Her soft cheek was glowing against mine. Darling, Darling, she murmured,
1:05:27
Speaker 1: I live in you, and you would die for me.
1:05:30
Speaker 1: I love you, so, I started from her. She was
1:05:33
Speaker 1: gazing on me with eyes from which all fire, all
1:05:36
Speaker 1: meaning had flown, and a face colorless and apathetic. Is
1:05:40
Speaker 1: there a chill in the air, dear, she said drowsily,
1:05:44
Speaker 1: I almost shiver. Have I been dreaming? Let us come in, Come, Come,
1:05:50
Speaker 1: come in. You look ill, Carmila, a little faint. You
1:05:55
Speaker 1: certainly must take some wine, I said, yes, I will.
1:06:01
Speaker 1: I'm better now, I shall be quite well in a
1:06:04
Speaker 1: few minutes. Yes, do give me a little wine, answered Carmilla.
1:06:09
Speaker 1: As we approached the door. Let us look again for
1:06:12
Speaker 1: a moment. It is the last time. Perhaps I shall
1:06:16
Speaker 1: see the moonlight with you. How do you feel now,
1:06:19
Speaker 1: dear Carmilla, are you really better? I asked, I was
1:06:24
Speaker 1: beginning to take alarm lest she should have been stricken
1:06:26
Speaker 1: with the strange epidemic that they said had invaded the
1:06:29
Speaker 1: country about us. Papa would be grieved beyond measure, I added,
1:06:34
Speaker 1: if he thought you were ever so little ill. Without
1:06:36
Speaker 1: immediately letting us know, we have a very skillful doctor
1:06:40
Speaker 1: near us, the physician who was with Papa to day,
1:06:44
Speaker 1: I'm sure he is. I know how kind you all are.
1:06:47
Speaker 1: But dear child, I am quite well again. There is
1:06:51
Speaker 1: nothing ever wrong with me but a little weakness. People
1:06:55
Speaker 1: say I am languid, I am incapable of exertion. I
1:06:59
Speaker 1: can scarcely walk as far as a child of three
1:07:01
Speaker 1: years old, and every now and then the little strength
1:07:04
Speaker 1: I have falters, and I become as you have just
1:07:06
Speaker 1: seen me. But after all I am very easily set
1:07:09
Speaker 1: up again. In a moment, I am perfectly myself. See
1:07:14
Speaker 1: how I have recovered so indeed she had, and she
1:07:18
Speaker 1: and I talked a great deal, and very animated she was,
1:07:22
Speaker 1: and the remainder of that evening passed without any recurrence
1:07:25
Speaker 1: of what I called her infatuations, I mean her crazy
1:07:28
Speaker 1: talk and looks which embarrassed and even frightened me. But
1:07:33
Speaker 1: there occurred that night an event which gave my thoughts
1:07:35
Speaker 1: quite a new turn, and seemed to startle even Carmilla's
1:07:38
Speaker 1: languid nature into momentary energy. Six a very strange agony.
1:07:44
Speaker 1: When we got into the drawing room and had sat
1:07:47
Speaker 1: down to our coffee chocolate, although Carmilla did not take any,
1:07:51
Speaker 1: she seemed quite herself again, and Madame and Mademoiselle de
1:07:54
Speaker 1: la Fontaine joined us and made a little card party,
1:07:58
Speaker 1: in the course of which Papa came in for what
1:08:00
Speaker 1: he called his dish of tea. When the game was over,
1:08:03
Speaker 1: he sat down beside Carmilla on the sofa and asked
1:08:07
Speaker 1: her a little anxiously whether she had heard from her
1:08:10
Speaker 1: mother since her arrival. She answered no. He then asked
1:08:14
Speaker 1: whether she knew where a letter would reach her at present.
1:08:17
Speaker 1: I cannot tell, she answered ambiguously. But I have been
1:08:21
Speaker 1: thinking of leaving you. You have been already too hospitable
1:08:24
Speaker 1: and too kind to me. I have given you an
1:08:26
Speaker 1: infinity of trouble, and I should wish to take a
1:08:29
Speaker 1: carriage tomorrow and post in pursuit of her. I know
1:08:32
Speaker 1: where I shall ultimately find her, although I dare not
1:08:34
Speaker 1: yet tell you. But you must not dream of any
1:08:38
Speaker 1: such thing, exclaimed my father to my great relief. We
1:08:42
Speaker 1: can't afford to lose you so and I won't consent
1:08:45
Speaker 1: to your leaving us except under the care of your mother,
1:08:48
Speaker 1: who was so good as to consent to your remaining
1:08:50
Speaker 1: with us till she should herself return. I should be
1:08:53
Speaker 1: quite happy if I knew that you heard from her,
1:08:55
Speaker 1: But this evening the accounts of the progress of the
1:08:58
Speaker 1: mysterious disease that has invaded our neighborhood grow even more alarming.
1:09:02
Speaker 1: And my beautiful guest, I do feel the responsibility unaided
1:09:06
Speaker 1: by advice from your mother very much, but I shall
1:09:10
Speaker 1: do my best. And one thing is certain that you
1:09:12
Speaker 1: must not think of leaving us without her distinct direction.
1:09:15
Speaker 1: To that effect. We should suffer too much imparting from
1:09:19
Speaker 1: you to consent to it easily. Thank you, sir a
1:09:23
Speaker 1: thousand times for your hospitality, she answered, smiling bashfully. You
1:09:28
Speaker 1: have all been too kind to me. I have seldom
1:09:31
Speaker 1: been so happy in all my life before, as in
1:09:33
Speaker 1: your beautiful chateau under your care, and in the society
1:09:37
Speaker 1: of your dear daughter. So he gallantly, in his old
1:09:39
Speaker 1: fashioned way, kissed her hand, smiling and pleased at her
1:09:42
Speaker 1: little speech. I accompanied Carmilla as usual to her room,
1:09:47
Speaker 1: and sat and chatted with her while she was preparing
1:09:50
Speaker 1: for bed. Do you think I said at length that
1:09:53
Speaker 1: you will ever confide fully in me? She turned round, smiling,
1:09:56
Speaker 1: but made no answer, only continued to smile on me.
1:10:00
Speaker 1: You won't answer that I said. You can't answer pleasantly.
1:10:05
Speaker 1: I ought not to have asked you. You were quite
1:10:08
Speaker 1: right to ask me that or anything. You do not
1:10:11
Speaker 1: know how dear you are to me, or you could
1:10:13
Speaker 1: not think any confidence too great to look for. But
1:10:17
Speaker 1: I am under vows no none half so awfully, And
1:10:20
Speaker 1: I dare not tell my story yet, even to you.
1:10:23
Speaker 1: The time is very near when you shall know everything.
1:10:27
Speaker 1: You will think me cruel, very selfish, But love is
1:10:30
Speaker 1: always selfish. The more ardent, the more selfish, how jealous
1:10:34
Speaker 1: I am, you cannot know. You must come with me,
1:10:38
Speaker 1: loving me to death, or else hate me in still,
1:10:41
Speaker 1: come with me and hating me through death and after.
1:10:45
Speaker 1: There is no such word as indifference in my apathetic nature. Now, Carmilla,
1:10:51
Speaker 1: you are going to talk your wild nonsense again, I said, hastily.
1:10:55
Speaker 1: Not I silly, little fool as I am, and full
1:10:58
Speaker 1: of whims and fancies. For your sake, I'll talk like
1:11:01
Speaker 1: a sage. Were you ever at a ball? No, how
1:11:06
Speaker 1: you do? Run on? What is it like? How charming
1:11:10
Speaker 1: it must be? I almost forget it is years ago,
1:11:14
Speaker 1: I laughed. You are not so old your first ball
1:11:19
Speaker 1: can hardly be forgotten. Yet I remember everything about it
1:11:23
Speaker 1: with an effort. I see it all as divers see
1:11:26
Speaker 1: what is going on above them through a medium, dense,
1:11:29
Speaker 1: rippling but transparent. There occurred that night, what has confused
1:11:34
Speaker 1: the picture and made its colors faint. I was all
1:11:37
Speaker 1: but assassinated in my bed, wounded. Here She touched her breast,
1:11:41
Speaker 1: and never was the same. Since were you near dying? Yes?
1:11:47
Speaker 1: Very a cruel love, strange love that would have taken
1:11:50
Speaker 1: my life. Love will have its sacrifices, no sacrifice without blood.
1:11:57
Speaker 1: Let us go to sleep now, I feel so oh lazy?
1:12:01
Speaker 1: How can I get up just now and lock my door?
1:12:04
Speaker 1: She was lying with her tiny hands buried in her
1:12:06
Speaker 1: rich wavy hair under her cheek, her little head upon
1:12:09
Speaker 1: the pillow, and her glittering eyes followed me wherever I moved,
1:12:13
Speaker 1: with a kind of shy smile that I could not decipher.
1:12:17
Speaker 1: I bid her good night and crept from the room
1:12:19
Speaker 1: with an uncomfortable sensation. I often wondered whether our pretty
1:12:23
Speaker 1: guest ever said her prayers. I certainly had never seen
1:12:27
Speaker 1: her upon her knees in the morning, she never came
1:12:31
Speaker 1: down until long after our family prayers were over, and
1:12:34
Speaker 1: at night she never left the drawing room to attend
1:12:36
Speaker 1: our brief evening prayers in the hall. If it had
1:12:39
Speaker 1: not been that it had casually come out in one
1:12:41
Speaker 1: of our careless talks that she had been baptized, I
1:12:44
Speaker 1: should have doubted her being a Christian. Religion was a
1:12:48
Speaker 1: subject on which I had never heard her speak a word.
1:12:51
Speaker 1: If I had known the world better, this particular neglect
1:12:54
Speaker 1: or antipathy would not have so much surprised me. The
1:12:58
Speaker 1: precautions of nervous people are infectious, and persons of a
1:13:02
Speaker 1: like temperament are pretty sure after a time to imitate them.
1:13:07
Speaker 1: I had adopted Carmila's habit of locking her bedroom door,
1:13:10
Speaker 1: having taken into my head all her whimsical alarms about
1:13:13
Speaker 1: midnight invaders and prowling assassins. I had also adopted her
1:13:17
Speaker 1: precaution of making a brief search through her room to
1:13:20
Speaker 1: satisfy herself that no lurking assassin or robber was ensconced.
1:13:25
Speaker 1: These wise measures taken, I got into my bed and
1:13:28
Speaker 1: fell asleep. A light was burning in my room. This
1:13:33
Speaker 1: was an old habit, of very early date, and which
1:13:36
Speaker 1: nothing could have tempted me to dispense with. Thus FORTI fed,
1:13:40
Speaker 1: I might take my rest in peace. But dreams come
1:13:43
Speaker 1: through stone walls, light up dark rooms or darkened light ones,
1:13:47
Speaker 1: and their persons make their exits and their entrances as
1:13:50
Speaker 1: they please, and laugh at locksmith's. I had a dream
1:13:55
Speaker 1: that night that was the beginning of a very strange agony.
1:13:58
Speaker 1: I cannot call it a night, for I was quite
1:14:01
Speaker 1: conscious of being asleep, But I was equally conscious of
1:14:05
Speaker 1: being in my room and lying in bed, precisely as
1:14:08
Speaker 1: I actually was. I saw, or fancied. I saw the
1:14:12
Speaker 1: room and its furniture, just as I had seen at last,
1:14:15
Speaker 1: except that it was very dark, and I saw something
1:14:17
Speaker 1: moving round the foot of the bed, which at first
1:14:20
Speaker 1: I could not accurately distinguish, But I soon saw that
1:14:24
Speaker 1: it was a sooty black animal that resembled a monstrous cat.
1:14:28
Speaker 1: It appeared to me about four or five feet long,
1:14:30
Speaker 1: for it measured fully the length of the hearth rug
1:14:33
Speaker 1: as it passed over it. And it continued to ion
1:14:35
Speaker 1: g and fro and g with the lithe sinister restlessness
1:14:39
Speaker 1: of a beast in a cage. I could not cry out,
1:14:42
Speaker 1: although as you may suppose, I was terrified. Its pace
1:14:46
Speaker 1: was growing faster, and the room rapidly darker and darker,
1:14:50
Speaker 1: and at length so dark that I could no longer
1:14:52
Speaker 1: see anything of it but its eyes. I felt it
1:14:56
Speaker 1: spring lightly on the bed. The two broad eyes a
1:14:59
Speaker 1: pro roached my face, and suddenly I felt a stinging pain,
1:15:03
Speaker 1: as if two large needles darted an inch or two
1:15:06
Speaker 1: apart deep into my breast. I waked with a scream.
1:15:10
Speaker 1: The room was lighted by the candle that burnt there
1:15:13
Speaker 1: all through the night, and I saw a female figure
1:15:15
Speaker 1: standing at the foot of the bed, a little at
1:15:18
Speaker 1: the right side. It was in a dark, loose dress,
1:15:21
Speaker 1: and its hair was down and covered its shoulders. A
1:15:25
Speaker 1: block of stone could not have been more Still, there
1:15:28
Speaker 1: was not the slightest stir of respiration. As I stared
1:15:32
Speaker 1: at it. The figure appeared to have changed its place,
1:15:35
Speaker 1: and was now nearer the door, then close to it.
1:15:38
Speaker 1: The door opened and it passed out. I was now
1:15:42
Speaker 1: relieved and able to breathe and move. My first thought
1:15:46
Speaker 1: was that Carmilla had been playing me a trick, and
1:15:48
Speaker 1: that I had forgotten to secure my door. I hastened
1:15:52
Speaker 1: to it and found it locked as usual on the inside.
1:15:55
Speaker 1: I was afraid to open it. I was horrified. I
1:15:59
Speaker 1: sprang into my bed and covered my head up in
1:16:01
Speaker 1: the bedclothes, and lay there more dead than alive till
1:16:04
Speaker 1: morning seven. Descending. It would be vain my attempting to
1:16:08
Speaker 1: tell you the horror with which even now I recall
1:16:11
Speaker 1: the occurrence of that night. It was no such transitory
1:16:15
Speaker 1: terror as a dream leaves behind it. It seemed to
1:16:19
Speaker 1: deepen by time, and communicated itself to the room and
1:16:22
Speaker 1: the very furniture that had encompassed the apparition. I could
1:16:26
Speaker 1: not bear next day to be alone for a moment.
1:16:29
Speaker 1: I should have told Papa, but for two opposite reasons.
1:16:33
Speaker 1: At one time I thought he would laugh at my story,
1:16:36
Speaker 1: and I could not bear its being treated as a jest.
1:16:38
Speaker 1: And at another I thought he might fancy that I
1:16:41
Speaker 1: had been attacked by the mysterious complaint which had invaded
1:16:43
Speaker 1: our neighborhood. I had myself no misgiving of the kind,
1:16:47
Speaker 1: and as he had been rather an invalid for some time,
1:16:50
Speaker 1: I was afraid of alarming him. I was comfortable enough
1:16:54
Speaker 1: with my good natured companions, Madame Paradon and the vivacious
1:16:58
Speaker 1: Mademoiselle la Fontaine. They both perceived that I was out
1:17:02
Speaker 1: of spirits and nervous, and at length I told them
1:17:04
Speaker 1: what lay so heavy at my heart. Mademoiselle laughed, but
1:17:09
Speaker 1: I fancied that Madame Paradon looked anxious by the bye,
1:17:13
Speaker 1: said Mademoiselle, laughing. The long lime tree walk behind Carmilla's
1:17:18
Speaker 1: bedroom window is haunted. Nonsense, exclaimed Madam, who probably thought
1:17:23
Speaker 1: the theme rather an opportune and who tells that story.
1:17:27
Speaker 1: My dear Martin says that he came up twice when
1:17:31
Speaker 1: the old yard gate was being repaired before sunrise, and
1:17:34
Speaker 1: twice saw the same female figure walking down the lime
1:17:37
Speaker 1: Tree Avenue. So he well might as long as there
1:17:41
Speaker 1: are cows to milk in the river fields, said Madam.
1:17:44
Speaker 1: I dare say, but Martin chooses to be frightened, and
1:17:48
Speaker 1: never did I see fool more frightened. You must not
1:17:51
Speaker 1: say a word about it to Carmilla, because she can
1:17:54
Speaker 1: see down that walk from her room window, I interposed,
1:17:57
Speaker 1: and she is, if possible, a greater coward than I.
1:18:01
Speaker 1: Carmila came down rather later than usual that day. I
1:18:05
Speaker 1: was so frightened last night, she said, so soon as
1:18:08
Speaker 1: were together. And I am sure I should have seen
1:18:10
Speaker 1: something dreadful if it had not been for that charm
1:18:12
Speaker 1: I bought from the poor little hunchback whom I called
1:18:15
Speaker 1: such hard names. I had a dream of something black
1:18:18
Speaker 1: coming round my bed, and I awoke in a perfect horror,
1:18:22
Speaker 1: and I really thought, for some seconds I saw a
1:18:24
Speaker 1: dark figure near the chimney piece. But I felt under
1:18:27
Speaker 1: my pillow for my charm, and the moment my fingers
1:18:30
Speaker 1: touched it, the figure disappeared. And I felt quite certain,
1:18:33
Speaker 1: only that I had it by me, that something frightful
1:18:37
Speaker 1: would have made its appearance and perhaps throttled me, as
1:18:41
Speaker 1: it did those poor people we heard of. Well, listen
1:18:45
Speaker 1: to me, I began and recounted my adventure at the recital,
1:18:48
Speaker 1: of which she appeared horrified. And had you the charm
1:18:52
Speaker 1: near you? She asked earnestly, no, I had dropped it
1:18:56
Speaker 1: into a china vase in the drawing room. But I
1:18:59
Speaker 1: shall certainly take with me tonight, as you have so
1:19:01
Speaker 1: much faith in it. At this distance of time, I
1:19:04
Speaker 1: cannot tell you or even understand how I overcame my
1:19:07
Speaker 1: horror so effectually as to lie alone in my room
1:19:10
Speaker 1: that night, I remembered distinctly that I pinned the charm
1:19:13
Speaker 1: to my pillow. I fell asleep almost immediately, and slept
1:19:18
Speaker 1: even more soundly than usual all night. Next night I
1:19:22
Speaker 1: passed as well. My sleep was delightfully deep and dreamless,
1:19:27
Speaker 1: but I wakened with a sense of lassitude and melancholy,
1:19:30
Speaker 1: which however, did not exceed a degree that was almost luxurious. Well,
1:19:36
Speaker 1: I told you so, said Carmilla, when I described my
1:19:39
Speaker 1: quiet sleep. I had such delightful sleep myself last night.
1:19:42
Speaker 1: I pinned the charm to the breast of my night dress.
1:19:46
Speaker 1: It was too far away. The night before. I am
1:19:49
Speaker 1: quite sure it was all fancy, except the dreams. I
1:19:53
Speaker 1: used to think that evil spirits made dreams, but our
1:19:56
Speaker 1: doctor told me it is no such thing, only a
1:19:59
Speaker 1: fever passing by, or some other malady, as they often do.
1:20:03
Speaker 1: He said, knocks at the door, and not being able
1:20:06
Speaker 1: to get in, passes on with that alarm. And what
1:20:10
Speaker 1: do you think the charm is, said I. It has
1:20:13
Speaker 1: been fumigated or immersed in some drug, and is an
1:20:16
Speaker 1: antidote against the malaria. She answered, Then it acts only
1:20:20
Speaker 1: on the body. Certainly, you don't suppose that evil spirits
1:20:24
Speaker 1: are frightened by bits of ribbon or the perfumes of
1:20:27
Speaker 1: a druggist's shop. No, these complaints wandering in the air
1:20:32
Speaker 1: begin by trying the nerves and so infect the brain.
1:20:35
Speaker 1: But before they can seize upon you, the antidote repels them. That,
1:20:40
Speaker 1: I am sure is what the charm has done for us.
1:20:43
Speaker 1: It is nothing magical, It is simply natural. I should
1:20:47
Speaker 1: have been happier if I could have quite agreed with Carmilla.
1:20:50
Speaker 1: But I did my best, and the impression was a
1:20:52
Speaker 1: little losing its force. For some nights I slept profoundly,
1:20:57
Speaker 1: but still every morning I felt the same lassitude, and
1:21:00
Speaker 1: a languor weighed upon me. All day. I felt myself
1:21:04
Speaker 1: a changed girl. A strange melancholy was stealing over me,
1:21:08
Speaker 1: a melancholy that I would not have interrupted. Dim thoughts
1:21:12
Speaker 1: of death began to open, and an idea that I
1:21:15
Speaker 1: was slowly sinking took gentle and somehow not unwelcome possession
1:21:19
Speaker 1: of me. If it was sad, the tone of mind
1:21:23
Speaker 1: which this induced was also sweet. Whatever it might be,
1:21:27
Speaker 1: my soul acquiesced in it, I would not admit that
1:21:30
Speaker 1: I was ill. I would not consent to tell my
1:21:33
Speaker 1: Papa or to have the doctor sent for Carmilla became
1:21:37
Speaker 1: more devoted to me than ever, and her strange paroxysms
1:21:40
Speaker 1: of languid adoration more frequent. She used to gloat on
1:21:44
Speaker 1: me with increasing ardor the more my strength and spirits waned.
1:21:48
Speaker 1: This always shocked me, like a momentary glare of insanity.
1:21:52
Speaker 1: Without knowing it, I was now in a pretty advanced
1:21:55
Speaker 1: stage of the strangest illness under which mortal ever suffered.
1:21:59
Speaker 1: There was an un u accountable fascination in its earlier
1:22:02
Speaker 1: symptoms that more than reconciled me to the incapacitating effect
1:22:05
Speaker 1: of that stage of the malady. This fascination increased for
1:22:09
Speaker 1: a time until it reached a certain point, when gradually
1:22:13
Speaker 1: a sense of the horrible mingled itself, with it deepening,
1:22:16
Speaker 1: as you shall hear, until it discolored and perverted the
1:22:19
Speaker 1: whole state of my life. The first change I experienced
1:22:23
Speaker 1: was rather agreeable. It was very near the turning point
1:22:26
Speaker 1: from which began the descent of earnest. Certain vague and
1:22:30
Speaker 1: strange sensations visited me in my sleep. The prevailing one
1:22:35
Speaker 1: was of that pleasant, peculiar, cold thrill which we feel
1:22:38
Speaker 1: in bathing when we move against the current of a river.
1:22:42
Speaker 1: This was soon accompanied by dreams that seemed interminable and
1:22:45
Speaker 1: were so vague that I could never recollect their scenery
1:22:48
Speaker 1: in persons or any one connected portion of their action.
1:22:52
Speaker 1: But they left an awful impression and a sense of exhaustion,
1:22:55
Speaker 1: as if I had passed through a long period of
1:22:58
Speaker 1: great mental exertion and danger. After all these dreams, there remained,
1:23:02
Speaker 1: on waking a remembrance of having been in a place
1:23:05
Speaker 1: very nearly dark, and of having spoken to people whom
1:23:08
Speaker 1: I could not see, and especially of one clear voice,
1:23:11
Speaker 1: of a female's, very deep that spoke as if at
1:23:14
Speaker 1: a distance, slowly and producing always the same sensation of
1:23:18
Speaker 1: indescribable solemnity and fear. Sometimes there came a sensation as
1:23:23
Speaker 1: if a hand was drawn softly along my cheek and neck.
1:23:27
Speaker 1: Sometimes it was as if warm lips kissed me, and longer,
1:23:30
Speaker 1: and longer, and more lovingly as they reached my throat.
1:23:33
Speaker 1: But there the caress fixed itself. My heart beat faster,
1:23:37
Speaker 1: my breathing rose and fell rapidly in full drawn, a
1:23:41
Speaker 1: sobbing that rose into a sense of strangulation supervened and
1:23:45
Speaker 1: turned into a dreadful convulsion, in which my senses left
1:23:48
Speaker 1: me and I became unconscious. It was now three weeks
1:23:52
Speaker 1: since the commencement of this unaccountable state. My sufferings had
1:23:57
Speaker 1: during the last week told upon my appearance. I had
1:24:01
Speaker 1: grown pale, My eyes were dilated and darkened underneath, and
1:24:04
Speaker 1: the languor which I had long felt began to display
1:24:07
Speaker 1: itself in my countenance. My father asked me often whether
1:24:11
Speaker 1: I was ill, but with an obstinacy which now seems
1:24:14
Speaker 1: to me unaccountable, I persisted in assuring him that I
1:24:17
Speaker 1: was quite well. In a sense. This was true. I
1:24:21
Speaker 1: had no pain, I could complain of, no bodily derangement.
1:24:26
Speaker 1: My complaint seemed to be one of the imagination or
1:24:28
Speaker 1: the nerves. And horrible as my sufferings were, I kept
1:24:32
Speaker 1: them with a morbid reserve, very nearly to myself. It
1:24:36
Speaker 1: could not be that terrible complaint which the peasants called
1:24:39
Speaker 1: the upire, For I had now been suffering for three weeks,
1:24:43
Speaker 1: and they were seldom ill for much more than three days.
1:24:46
Speaker 1: When death put an end to their miseries. Carmilla complained
1:24:50
Speaker 1: of dreams and feverish sensations, but by no means of
1:24:53
Speaker 1: so alarming a kind as mine. I say that mine
1:24:57
Speaker 1: were extremely alarming. Had I been capable of comprehending my condition,
1:25:02
Speaker 1: would have invoked aid an advice on my knees. The
1:25:05
Speaker 1: narcotic of an unsuspected influence was acting upon me, and
1:25:09
Speaker 1: my perceptions were benumbed. I am going to tell you
1:25:12
Speaker 1: now of a dream that led immediately to an odd discovery.
1:25:16
Speaker 1: One night, instead of the voice I was accustomed to
1:25:19
Speaker 1: hear in the dark, I heard one sweet and tender
1:25:22
Speaker 1: and at the same time terrible, which said, your mother
1:25:25
Speaker 1: warns you to beware of the assassin. At the same time,
1:25:29
Speaker 1: a light unexpectedly sprang up, and I saw Carmilla standing
1:25:34
Speaker 1: near the foot of my bed in her white night dress,
1:25:36
Speaker 1: bathed from her chin to her feet in one great
1:25:39
Speaker 1: stain of blood. I wakened with a shriek, possessed with
1:25:43
Speaker 1: the one idea that Carmilla was being murdered. I remember
1:25:47
Speaker 1: springing for my bed, and my next recollection is that
1:25:50
Speaker 1: of standing on the lobby crying for help. Madame and
1:25:54
Speaker 1: Mademoiselle came scurrying out of their rooms in alarm. A
1:25:57
Speaker 1: lamp burned always on the lobby, and seeing me, they
1:26:00
Speaker 1: soon learned the cause of my terror. I insisted on
1:26:04
Speaker 1: our knocking at Carmilla's door. Our knocking was unanswered. It
1:26:09
Speaker 1: soon became a pounding and an uproar. We shrieked her name,
1:26:13
Speaker 1: but all was vain. We all grew frightened, for the
1:26:17
Speaker 1: door was locked. We hurried back in panic to my room.
1:26:23
Speaker 1: There we rang the bell long and furiously. If my
1:26:26
Speaker 1: father's room had been at that side of the house,
1:26:29
Speaker 1: we would have called him up at once to our aid,
1:26:32
Speaker 1: But alas he was quite out of hearing, and to
1:26:36
Speaker 1: reach him involved an excursion for which we none of
1:26:38
Speaker 1: us had courage. Servants, however, soon came running up the stairs.
1:26:43
Speaker 1: I had got on my dressing gown and slippers. Meanwhile,
1:26:46
Speaker 1: and my companions were already similarly furnished. Recognizing the voices
1:26:51
Speaker 1: of the servants on the lobby, we sallied out together, and,
1:26:54
Speaker 1: having renewed as fruitlessly our summons at Carmilla's door, I
1:26:59
Speaker 1: ordered the men to fore lock. They did so, and
1:27:02
Speaker 1: we stood, holding our lights aloft in the doorway, and
1:27:06
Speaker 1: so stared into the room. We called her by name,
1:27:10
Speaker 1: but there was still no reply. We looked round the room.
1:27:14
Speaker 1: Everything was undisturbed. It was exactly in the state in
1:27:18
Speaker 1: which I had left it on bidding her good night.
1:27:21
Speaker 1: But Carmilla was gone. Eight search. At sight of the
1:27:25
Speaker 1: room perfectly undisturbed except for our violent entrance, we began
1:27:29
Speaker 1: to cool a little, and soon recovered our senses sufficiently
1:27:32
Speaker 1: to dismiss the men. It had struck Mademoiselle that possibly
1:27:36
Speaker 1: Carmilla had been wakened by the uproar at her door, and,
1:27:40
Speaker 1: in her first panic, had jumped from her bed and
1:27:42
Speaker 1: hid herself in a press or, behind a curtain, from
1:27:45
Speaker 1: which she could not, of course, emerge until the Majordomo
1:27:48
Speaker 1: and his mermidans had withdrawn. We now recommenced our search
1:27:53
Speaker 1: and began to call her name again. It was all
1:27:56
Speaker 1: to no purpose. Our perplexity and agitation increased. We examined
1:28:02
Speaker 1: the windows, but they were secured. I implored of Carmilla.
1:28:07
Speaker 1: If she had concealed herself to play this cruel trick,
1:28:10
Speaker 1: no longer to come out and to end our anxieties,
1:28:13
Speaker 1: it was all useless. I was by this time convinced
1:28:17
Speaker 1: that she was not in the room, nor in the
1:28:19
Speaker 1: dressing room, the door of which was still locked. On
1:28:22
Speaker 1: this side, she could not have passed it. I was
1:28:26
Speaker 1: utterly puzzled. Had Carmilla discovered one of those secret passages
1:28:31
Speaker 1: which the old housekeeper said were known to exist in
1:28:33
Speaker 1: the schloss, although the tradition of their exact situation had
1:28:37
Speaker 1: been lost a little time, would, no doubt explain all
1:28:41
Speaker 1: utterly perplexed. As for the present we were, it was
1:28:46
Speaker 1: past four o'clock, and I preferred passing the remaining hours
1:28:49
Speaker 1: of darkness in Madam's room. Daylight brought no solution of
1:28:53
Speaker 1: the difficulty. The whole household, with my father at its head,
1:28:58
Speaker 1: was in a state of agitation. Next morning, every part
1:29:01
Speaker 1: of the chateau was searched, the grounds were explored. No
1:29:06
Speaker 1: trace of the missing lady could be discovered. The stream
1:29:10
Speaker 1: was about to be dragged. My father was in distraction.
1:29:13
Speaker 1: What a tale to have to tell the poor girl's
1:29:16
Speaker 1: mother on her return, I too was almost beside myself,
1:29:20
Speaker 1: though my grief was quite of a different kind. The
1:29:24
Speaker 1: morning was passed in alarm and excitement. It was now
1:29:27
Speaker 1: one o'clock and still no tidings. I ran up to
1:29:31
Speaker 1: Carmilla's room and found her standing at her dressing table.
1:29:35
Speaker 1: I was astounded. I could not believe my eyes. She
1:29:40
Speaker 1: beckoned me to her with her pretty finger in silence,
1:29:44
Speaker 1: her face expressed extreme fear. I ran to her in
1:29:48
Speaker 1: an ecstasy of joy. I kissed and embraced her again
1:29:51
Speaker 1: and again. I ran to the bell and rang it vehemently,
1:29:55
Speaker 1: to bring others to the spot, whom might at once
1:29:57
Speaker 1: relieve my father's anxiety. Dear Carmilla, what has become of you?
1:30:01
Speaker 1: All this time? We have been in agonies of anxiety
1:30:05
Speaker 1: about you? I exclaimed, Where have you been? How did
1:30:09
Speaker 1: you come back? Last night has been a night of wonders,
1:30:13
Speaker 1: she said, For Mercy's sake, explain all you can. It
1:30:18
Speaker 1: was past two last night, she said, when I went
1:30:21
Speaker 1: to sleep as usual in my bed, with my doors locked,
1:30:24
Speaker 1: that of the dressing room, and that opening upon the gallery.
1:30:28
Speaker 1: My sleep was uninterrupted, and so far as I know, dreamless.
1:30:32
Speaker 1: But I woke just now on the sofa in the
1:30:34
Speaker 1: dressing room there, and I found the door between the
1:30:37
Speaker 1: rooms open, and the other door forced. How could all
1:30:41
Speaker 1: this have happened without my being wakened? It must have
1:30:44
Speaker 1: been accompanied with a great deal of noise, and I
1:30:47
Speaker 1: am particularly easily wakened. And how could I have been
1:30:50
Speaker 1: carried out of my bed without my sleep having been
1:30:52
Speaker 1: interrupted by whom the slightest stir startles. By this time,
1:30:56
Speaker 1: Madame Mademoiselle, my father, and a number of the servants
1:30:59
Speaker 1: were in the Carmilla was, of course overwhelmed with inquiries,
1:31:04
Speaker 1: congratulations and welcomes. She had but one story to tell,
1:31:10
Speaker 1: and seemed the least able of all the party to
1:31:12
Speaker 1: suggest any way of accounting for what had happened. My
1:31:16
Speaker 1: father took a turn up and down the room, thinking
1:31:19
Speaker 1: I saw Carmilla's I follow him for a moment with
1:31:22
Speaker 1: a sly, dark glance. When my father had sent the
1:31:26
Speaker 1: servants away, Mademoiselle having gone in search of a little
1:31:29
Speaker 1: bottle of Valerian and salvoladol, and there being no one
1:31:32
Speaker 1: now in the room with Carmilla except my father, Madam
1:31:35
Speaker 1: and myself, he came to her thoughtfully took her hand,
1:31:38
Speaker 1: very kindly, led her to the sofa and sat down
1:31:41
Speaker 1: beside her. Will you forgive me, my dear if I
1:31:45
Speaker 1: risk a conjecture and ask a question, who can have
1:31:49
Speaker 1: a better right? She said, Ask what you please, and
1:31:53
Speaker 1: I will tell you everything. But my story is simply
1:31:56
Speaker 1: one of bewilderment and darkness. I know absolutely nothing. Put
1:32:02
Speaker 1: any question you please, But you know, of course, the
1:32:05
Speaker 1: limitations Mamma has placed me under perfectly, my dear child,
1:32:11
Speaker 1: I need not approach the topics on which she desires
1:32:14
Speaker 1: our silence. Now, the marvel of last night consists in
1:32:18
Speaker 1: your having been removed from your bed and your room
1:32:21
Speaker 1: without being wakened, and this removal having occurred apparently while
1:32:24
Speaker 1: the windows were still secured and the two doors locked
1:32:27
Speaker 1: upon the inside. I will tell you my theory and
1:32:30
Speaker 1: ask you a question. Carmila was leaning on her hand dejectedly.
1:32:35
Speaker 1: Madam and I were listening breathlessly. Now my question is this.
1:32:41
Speaker 1: Have you ever been suspected of walking in your sleep?
1:32:44
Speaker 1: Never since I was very young? Indeed, but you did
1:32:48
Speaker 1: walk in your sleep when you were young? Yes, I
1:32:51
Speaker 1: know I did. I have been told so often by
1:32:55
Speaker 1: my old nurse. My father smiled and nodded, Well, what
1:33:00
Speaker 1: has happened is this? You got up in your sleep
1:33:03
Speaker 1: unlocked the door, not leaving the key as usual in
1:33:07
Speaker 1: the lock, but taking it out and locking it on
1:33:09
Speaker 1: the outside. You again took the key out and carried
1:33:12
Speaker 1: it away with you to some one of the five
1:33:14
Speaker 1: and twenty rooms on this floor, or perhaps upstairs or downstairs.
1:33:19
Speaker 1: There are so many rooms and closets, so much heavy furniture,
1:33:23
Speaker 1: and such accumulations of lumber, that it would require a
1:33:26
Speaker 1: week to search this old house thoroughly. Do you see
1:33:30
Speaker 1: now what I mean? I do? But not all? She answered,
1:33:35
Speaker 1: And how Papa, do you account for her finding herself
1:33:38
Speaker 1: on the sofa in the dressing room, which we had
1:33:41
Speaker 1: searched so carefully. She came there after you had searched it,
1:33:45
Speaker 1: still in her sleep, and at last awoke spontaneously, and
1:33:49
Speaker 1: was as much surprised to find herself where she was
1:33:51
Speaker 1: as any one else. I wish all mysteries were as
1:33:54
Speaker 1: easily and innocently explained as yours, Carmilla, he said, laughing.
1:34:00
Speaker 1: And so we may congratulate ourselves on the certainty that
1:34:03
Speaker 1: the most natural explanation of the occurrence is one that
1:34:05
Speaker 1: involves no drugging, no tampering with locks, no burglars or
1:34:09
Speaker 1: poisoners or witches. Nothing that need alarm Carmilla or any
1:34:14
Speaker 1: one else for our safety. Carmilla was looking charmingly. Nothing
1:34:19
Speaker 1: could be more beautiful than her tints. Her beauty was
1:34:23
Speaker 1: I think enhanced by that graceful languor that was peculiar
1:34:27
Speaker 1: to her. I think my father was silently contrasting her
1:34:30
Speaker 1: looks with mine, for he said, I wish my poor
1:34:33
Speaker 1: Laura was looking more like herself, and he sighed. So
1:34:37
Speaker 1: our alarms were happily ended, and Carmilla restored to her friends.
1:34:42
Speaker 1: Nine the doctor. As Carmilla would not hear of an
1:34:45
Speaker 1: attendant sleeping in her room, my father arranged that a
1:34:48
Speaker 1: servant should sleep outside her door, so that she would
1:34:51
Speaker 1: not attempt to make another such excursion without being arrested
1:34:54
Speaker 1: at her own door. That night passed quietly, and next
1:34:58
Speaker 1: morning early the doctor whom my father had sent for
1:35:01
Speaker 1: without telling me a word about it, arrived to see me.
1:35:05
Speaker 1: Madam accompanied me to the library, and there the grave
1:35:08
Speaker 1: little doctor with white hair and spectacles whom I mentioned before,
1:35:12
Speaker 1: was waiting to receive me. I told him my story,
1:35:16
Speaker 1: and as I proceeded he grew graver and graver. We
1:35:19
Speaker 1: were standing, he and I in the recess of one
1:35:22
Speaker 1: of the windows, facing one another. When my statement was over,
1:35:27
Speaker 1: he leaned with his shoulders against the wall and with
1:35:29
Speaker 1: his eyes fixed on me, earnestly, with an interest in
1:35:32
Speaker 1: which was a dash of horror. After a minute's reflection,
1:35:36
Speaker 1: he asked Madam if he could see my father. He
1:35:40
Speaker 1: was sent for accordingly, and as he entered, smiling, he said,
1:35:44
Speaker 1: I dare say, doctor, you are going to tell me
1:35:46
Speaker 1: that I am an old fool for having brought you here.
1:35:49
Speaker 1: I hope I am. But his smile faded into shadow
1:35:52
Speaker 1: as the doctor, with a very grave face, beckoned him
1:35:55
Speaker 1: to him. He and the doctor talked for some time
1:35:58
Speaker 1: in the same recess where I had just got inferred
1:36:00
Speaker 1: with the physician. It seemed an earnest and argumentative conversation.
1:36:05
Speaker 1: The room is very large, and I and Madam stood together,
1:36:09
Speaker 1: burning with curiosity. At the farther end. Not a word
1:36:13
Speaker 1: could we hear, however, for they spoke in a very
1:36:16
Speaker 1: low tone, and the deep recess of the window quite
1:36:19
Speaker 1: concealed the doctor from view, and very nearly my father,
1:36:22
Speaker 1: whose foot arm and shoulder only could we see, and
1:36:25
Speaker 1: the voices were, I suppose, all the less audible for
1:36:29
Speaker 1: the sort of closet which the thick wall and window formed.
1:36:33
Speaker 1: After a time, my father's face looked into the room.
1:36:36
Speaker 1: It was pale, thoughtful, and I fancied, agitated. Laura, dear,
1:36:42
Speaker 1: come here for a moment, madam. We shan't trouble you,
1:36:46
Speaker 1: the doctor says, at present. Accordingly, I approached for the
1:36:51
Speaker 1: first time, a little alarmed, for although I felt very weak,
1:36:54
Speaker 1: I did not feel ill. And strength one always fancies
1:36:58
Speaker 1: is a thing that may be picked up when we please.
1:37:01
Speaker 1: My father held out his hand to me as I
1:37:04
Speaker 1: drew near, but he was looking at the doctor, and
1:37:06
Speaker 1: he said, it certainly is very odd. I don't understand
1:37:09
Speaker 1: it quite. Laura, come here, dear. Now attend to doctor
1:37:14
Speaker 1: Spielsburg and recollect yourself. You mentioned a sensation like that
1:37:19
Speaker 1: of two needles piercing the skin somewhere about your neck
1:37:22
Speaker 1: on the night when you experienced your first horrible dream.
1:37:26
Speaker 1: Is there still any soreness? None at all? I answered,
1:37:31
Speaker 1: Can you indicate with your finger about the point at
1:37:33
Speaker 1: which you think this occurred? Very little below my throat
1:37:37
Speaker 1: here I answered, I wore a morning dress which covered
1:37:41
Speaker 1: the place I pointed to. Now you can satisfy yourself,
1:37:45
Speaker 1: said the doctor. You won't mind your papa's lowering your
1:37:49
Speaker 1: dress a very little. It is necessary to detect the
1:37:53
Speaker 1: symptom of the complaint under which you have been suffering.
1:37:55
Speaker 1: I acquiesced. It was only an inch or two below
1:37:59
Speaker 1: the edge of myne collar. God bless me, so it is,
1:38:03
Speaker 1: exclaimed my father, growing pale. You see it now with
1:38:07
Speaker 1: your own eyes, said the doctor, with a gloomy triumph.
1:38:11
Speaker 1: What is it, I exclaimed, beginning to be frightened. Nothing,
1:38:16
Speaker 1: my dear young lady, but a small blue spot, about
1:38:19
Speaker 1: the size of the tip of your little finger. And now,
1:38:22
Speaker 1: he continued, turning to Papa. The question is what is
1:38:25
Speaker 1: best to be done? Is there any danger? I urged
1:38:29
Speaker 1: in great trepidation. I trust not, my dear, answered the doctor.
1:38:35
Speaker 1: I don't see why you should not recover. I don't
1:38:38
Speaker 1: see why you should not begin immediately to get better.
1:38:42
Speaker 1: That is the point at which the sense of strangulation begins. Yes,
1:38:46
Speaker 1: I answered, and recollect as well as you can. The
1:38:51
Speaker 1: same point was a kind of center of that thrill
1:38:53
Speaker 1: which you described just now, like the current of a
1:38:56
Speaker 1: cold stream running against you. It may have been I
1:38:59
Speaker 1: think think it was I, you see, he added, turning
1:39:03
Speaker 1: to my father. Shall I say a word to Madam? Certainly,
1:39:08
Speaker 1: said my father. He called Madam to him and said,
1:39:12
Speaker 1: I find my young friend here far from well. It
1:39:16
Speaker 1: won't be of any great consequence, I hope, but it
1:39:19
Speaker 1: will be necessary that some steps be taken, which I
1:39:22
Speaker 1: will explain by an by. But in the meantime, Madam,
1:39:25
Speaker 1: you will be so good as not to let miss
1:39:27
Speaker 1: Laura be alone for one moment. That is the only
1:39:30
Speaker 1: direction I need give for the present. It is indispensable.
1:39:35
Speaker 1: We may rely upon your kindness, Madam, I know, added
1:39:39
Speaker 1: my father. Madam satisfied him eagerly. And you, dear Laura,
1:39:45
Speaker 1: I know you will observe the doctor's direction. I shall
1:39:48
Speaker 1: have to ask your opinion upon another patient whose symptoms
1:39:52
Speaker 1: slightly resemble those of my daughter that have just been
1:39:54
Speaker 1: detailed to you, very much milder in degree, but I
1:39:58
Speaker 1: believe quite of the same sort. She is a young lady,
1:40:02
Speaker 1: our guest. But as you say, you will be passing
1:40:04
Speaker 1: this way again this evening. You can't do better than
1:40:07
Speaker 1: take your supper here and you can then see her.
1:40:10
Speaker 1: She does not come down till the afternoon. I thank you,
1:40:14
Speaker 1: said the doctor. I shall be with you then at
1:40:17
Speaker 1: about seven this evening. And then they repeated their directions
1:40:21
Speaker 1: to me and to Madam. And with this parting charge,
1:40:24
Speaker 1: my father left us and walked out with the doctor.
1:40:27
Speaker 1: And I saw them pacing together up and down between
1:40:29
Speaker 1: the road and the moat on the grassy platform in
1:40:32
Speaker 1: front of the castle, evidently absorbed in earnest conversation. The
1:40:36
Speaker 1: doctor did not return. I saw him mount his horse there,
1:40:40
Speaker 1: take his leave, and ride away eastward through the forest.
1:40:44
Speaker 1: Nearly at the same time, I saw the man arrive
1:40:47
Speaker 1: from Dranfield with the letters and dismount and hand the
1:40:50
Speaker 1: bag to my father. In the meantime, Madam and I
1:40:54
Speaker 1: were both busy lost in conjecture as to the reasons
1:40:57
Speaker 1: of the singular and earnest direction which the doctor and
1:40:59
Speaker 1: my father had concurred in imposing. Madam, as she afterwards
1:41:04
Speaker 1: told me, was afraid the doctor apprehended a sudden seizure,
1:41:07
Speaker 1: and that without prompt assistance, I might either lose my
1:41:11
Speaker 1: life in a fit, or at least be seriously hurt.
1:41:15
Speaker 1: The interpretation did not strike me, and I fancied, perhaps
1:41:19
Speaker 1: luckily for my nerves, that the arrangement was prescribed simply
1:41:22
Speaker 1: to secure a companion who would prevent my taking too
1:41:25
Speaker 1: much exercise, or eating unripe fruit, or doing any of
1:41:29
Speaker 1: the fifty foolish things to which young people are supposed
1:41:31
Speaker 1: to be prone. About half an hour after my father
1:41:35
Speaker 1: came in, he had a letter in his hand and said,
1:41:38
Speaker 1: this letter had been delayed. It is from General Spielsdorf.
1:41:42
Speaker 1: He might have been here yesterday, he may not come
1:41:44
Speaker 1: till tomorrow, or he may be here to day. He
1:41:48
Speaker 1: put the open letter into my hand, but he did
1:41:50
Speaker 1: not look pleased, as he used when a guest, especially
1:41:54
Speaker 1: one so much loved as the General, was coming. On
1:41:58
Speaker 1: the contrary, he looked as if he wished him at
1:42:00
Speaker 1: the bottom of the red Sea. There was plainly something
1:42:03
Speaker 1: on his mind which he did not choose to divulge. Papa, darling,
1:42:08
Speaker 1: will you tell me this, said I, suddenly, laying my
1:42:12
Speaker 1: hand on his arm and looking I am sure, imploringly
1:42:15
Speaker 1: in his face. Perhaps, he answered, smoothing my hair caressingly
1:42:20
Speaker 1: over my eyes. Does the doctor think me very ill? No, dear,
1:42:26
Speaker 1: he thinks if right steps are taken, you will be
1:42:29
Speaker 1: quite well again, at least on the high road to
1:42:32
Speaker 1: a complete recovery in a day or two, he answered,
1:42:35
Speaker 1: a little dryly. I wish our good friend the General
1:42:39
Speaker 1: had chosen any other time. That is, I wish you
1:42:42
Speaker 1: had been perfectly well to receive him. But do tell me, Papa,
1:42:47
Speaker 1: I insisted, what does he think is the matter with me? Nothing?
1:42:51
Speaker 1: You must not plague me with questions, he answered, with
1:42:55
Speaker 1: more irritation than I ever remember him to have displayed before,
1:42:58
Speaker 1: and seeing that I looked wounded, I suppose, he kissed
1:43:01
Speaker 1: me and added, he shall know all about it in
1:43:04
Speaker 1: a day or two. That is all that I know.
1:43:08
Speaker 1: In the meantime, you are not to trouble your head
1:43:10
Speaker 1: about it. He turned and left the room, but came
1:43:13
Speaker 1: back before I had done wondering and puzzling over the
1:43:15
Speaker 1: oddity of all this. It was merely to say that
1:43:18
Speaker 1: he was going to Carnstein and had ordered the carriage
1:43:20
Speaker 1: to be ready at twelve, and that I and Madam
1:43:23
Speaker 1: should accompany him. He was going to see the priest
1:43:26
Speaker 1: who lived near those picturesque grounds upon business, and as
1:43:30
Speaker 1: Carmilla had never seen them, she could follow. When she
1:43:33
Speaker 1: came down with Mademoiselle, who would bring materials for what
1:43:36
Speaker 1: you call a picnic, which might be laid for us
1:43:39
Speaker 1: in the ruined castle at twelve o'clock. Accordingly, I was ready,
1:43:43
Speaker 1: and not long after my father, Madam and I set
1:43:46
Speaker 1: out upon our projected drive. Passing the drawbridge, we turned
1:43:50
Speaker 1: to the right and follow the road over the steep
1:43:53
Speaker 1: Gothic bridge westward to reach the deserted village and ruined
1:43:57
Speaker 1: castle of Carnstein. No Sylvan drum can be fancied prettier.
1:44:02
Speaker 1: The ground breaks into gentle hills and hollows, all clothed
1:44:06
Speaker 1: with beautiful wood, totally destitute of the comparative formality which
1:44:10
Speaker 1: artificial planting and early culture and pruning impart. The irregularities
1:44:15
Speaker 1: of the ground often lead the road out of its
1:44:17
Speaker 1: course and cause it to wind beautifully round the sides
1:44:20
Speaker 1: of broken hollows and the steeper sides of the hills,
1:44:22
Speaker 1: among varieties of ground almost inexhaustible. Turning one of these points,
1:44:28
Speaker 1: we suddenly encountered our old friend, the General, riding towards us,
1:44:32
Speaker 1: attended by a mounted servant. His portmanteaus were following in
1:44:36
Speaker 1: a hired wagon, such as we term a cart. The
1:44:40
Speaker 1: General dismounted as we pulled up, and after the usual greetings,
1:44:44
Speaker 1: was easily persuaded to accept the vacant seat in the
1:44:47
Speaker 1: carriage and send his horse on with his servant to
1:44:49
Speaker 1: the Schloss x bereaved. It was about ten months since
1:44:53
Speaker 1: we had last seen him, but that time had sufficed
1:44:56
Speaker 1: to make an alteration of years in his appearance. He
1:44:59
Speaker 1: had grown thinner, something of gloom and anxiety had taken
1:45:03
Speaker 1: the place of that cordial serenity which used to characterize
1:45:05
Speaker 1: his features. His dark blue eyes, always penetrating, now gleamed
1:45:11
Speaker 1: with a sterner light from under his shaggy gray eyebrows.
1:45:15
Speaker 1: It was not such a change as grief alone usually
1:45:17
Speaker 1: induces and angrier passion seemed to have had their share
1:45:21
Speaker 1: in bringing it about. We had not long resumed our
1:45:24
Speaker 1: drive when the General began to talk with his usual
1:45:27
Speaker 1: soldierly directness of the bereavement, as he termed it, which
1:45:31
Speaker 1: he had sustained in the death of his beloved niece
1:45:34
Speaker 1: and ward. And he then broke out in a tone
1:45:36
Speaker 1: of intense bitterness and fury, inveighing against the hellish arts
1:45:40
Speaker 1: to which she had fallen a victim and expressing with
1:45:44
Speaker 1: more exasperation than piety, his wonder that Heaven should tolerate
1:45:47
Speaker 1: so monstrous an indulgence of the lusts and malignity of Hell.
1:45:52
Speaker 1: My father, who saw at once that something very extraordinary
1:45:55
Speaker 1: had Befallen, asked him, if not too painful to him,
1:45:59
Speaker 1: to detail the sircumstances which he thought justified the strong
1:46:02
Speaker 1: terms in which he expressed himself. I should tell you
1:46:06
Speaker 1: all with pleasure, said the general. But you would not
1:46:09
Speaker 1: believe me. Why should I not, he asked, because he
1:46:14
Speaker 1: answered testily, you believe in nothing but what consists with
1:46:17
Speaker 1: your own prejudices and illusions. I remember when I was
1:46:21
Speaker 1: like you, but I have learned better. Try me, said
1:46:25
Speaker 1: my father. I am not such a dogmatist as you suppose.
1:46:29
Speaker 1: Besides which, I very well know that you generally require
1:46:33
Speaker 1: proof for what you believe, and am therefore very strongly
1:46:36
Speaker 1: predisposed to respect your conclusions. You are right in supposing
1:46:41
Speaker 1: that I have not been led lightly into a belief
1:46:43
Speaker 1: in the marvelous For what I have experienced is marvelous,
1:46:47
Speaker 1: and I have been forced by extraordinary evidence to credit
1:46:49
Speaker 1: that which ran counter diametrically to all my theories. I
1:46:54
Speaker 1: have been made the dupe of a preternatural conspiracy, notwithstanding
1:46:58
Speaker 1: his professions of confidence in the General's penetration. I saw
1:47:02
Speaker 1: my father at this point glance at the General with
1:47:05
Speaker 1: as I thought, a marked suspicion of his sanity. The
1:47:09
Speaker 1: General did not see it, luckily. He was looking gloomily
1:47:13
Speaker 1: and curiously into the glades and vistas of the woods
1:47:16
Speaker 1: that were opening before us. You are going to the
1:47:19
Speaker 1: ruins of Karnstein, he said, yes, it is a lucky coincidence.
1:47:24
Speaker 1: Do you know. I was going to ask you to
1:47:26
Speaker 1: bring me there to inspect them. I have a special
1:47:29
Speaker 1: object in exploring. There is a ruined chapel, ain't there,
1:47:33
Speaker 1: with a great many tombs of that extinct family. So
1:47:37
Speaker 1: there are highly interesting, said my father. I hope you
1:47:41
Speaker 1: are thinking of claiming the title and the states. My
1:47:44
Speaker 1: father said this gaily, but the General did not recollect
1:47:47
Speaker 1: the laugh or even the smile, which courtesy exacts for
1:47:50
Speaker 1: a friend's joke. On the contrary, he looked grave and
1:47:54
Speaker 1: even fierce, ruminating on a matter that stirred his anger
1:47:57
Speaker 1: and horror. Something very different, He said, gruffly, I mean
1:48:02
Speaker 1: to unearth some of those fine people. I hope by
1:48:06
Speaker 1: God's blessing, to accomplish a pious sacrilege here which will
1:48:10
Speaker 1: relieve our earth of certain monsters and enable honest people
1:48:13
Speaker 1: to sleep in their beds without being assailed by murderers.
1:48:17
Speaker 1: I have strange things to tell you, my dear friend,
1:48:20
Speaker 1: such as I myself would have scouted as incredible. A
1:48:23
Speaker 1: few months since my father looked at him again, but
1:48:25
Speaker 1: this time not with a glance of suspicion, with an
1:48:28
Speaker 1: eye rather of keen intelligence and alarm. The house of Carnstein,
1:48:33
Speaker 1: he said, has been long extinct a hundred years. At least.
1:48:38
Speaker 1: My dear wife was maternally descended from the Carnsteins, but
1:48:42
Speaker 1: the name and title have long ceased to exist. The
1:48:46
Speaker 1: castle is a ruin. The very village is deserted. It
1:48:49
Speaker 1: is fifty years since the smoke of a chimney was seen.
1:48:52
Speaker 1: There not a roof left. Quite true, I have heard
1:48:56
Speaker 1: a great deal about that since I last saw you,
1:48:59
Speaker 1: A great deal that will astonish you. But I had
1:49:02
Speaker 1: better relate everything in the order in which it occurred,
1:49:05
Speaker 1: said the General. You saw, my dear ward, my child
1:49:09
Speaker 1: I may call her. No creature could have been more beautiful,
1:49:13
Speaker 1: and only three months ago none more blooming. Yes, poor thing.
1:49:19
Speaker 1: When I saw her last, she certainly was quite lovely,
1:49:22
Speaker 1: said my father. I was grieved and shocked more than
1:49:25
Speaker 1: I can tell you, My dear friend, I knew what
1:49:28
Speaker 1: a blow it was to you. He took the General's hand,
1:49:31
Speaker 1: and they exchanged a kind pressure. Tears gathered in the
1:49:34
Speaker 1: old soldier's eyes. He did not seek to conceal them,
1:49:39
Speaker 1: he said, we have been very old friends. I knew
1:49:42
Speaker 1: you would feel for me, childless as I am. She
1:49:45
Speaker 1: had become an object of very near interest to me,
1:49:48
Speaker 1: and repaid my care by an affection that cheered my
1:49:51
Speaker 1: home and made my life happy. That is all gone.
1:49:55
Speaker 1: The years that remained to me on earth may not
1:49:58
Speaker 1: be very long, But by God's mercy, I hope to
1:50:01
Speaker 1: accomplish a service to mankind before I die, and to
1:50:04
Speaker 1: subserve the vengeance of Heaven upon the fiends who have
1:50:06
Speaker 1: murdered my poor child in the spring of her hopes
1:50:09
Speaker 1: and beauty. You said just now that you intended relating
1:50:13
Speaker 1: everything as it occurred, said my father. Pray, do I
1:50:18
Speaker 1: assure you that it is not mere curiosity that prompts me.
1:50:21
Speaker 1: By this time, we had reached the point at which
1:50:23
Speaker 1: the Drumstall road by which the General had come diverges
1:50:26
Speaker 1: from the road which we were traveling to Carnstein. How
1:50:30
Speaker 1: far is it to the ruins, inquired the General, looking
1:50:33
Speaker 1: anxiously forward, about half a league. Answered my father, pray,
1:50:39
Speaker 1: let us hear the story. You were so good as
1:50:41
Speaker 1: to promise eleven the story with all my heart, said
1:50:45
Speaker 1: the General with an effort, and after a short pause
1:50:48
Speaker 1: in which to arrange his subject, he commenced one of
1:50:51
Speaker 1: the strangest narratives I ever heard. My dear child was
1:50:55
Speaker 1: looking forward with great pleasure to the visit you had
1:50:57
Speaker 1: been so good as to arrange for her to your charge. Daughter,
1:51:01
Speaker 1: here he made me a gallant but melancholy bow. In
1:51:05
Speaker 1: the meantime we had an invitation to my old friend,
1:51:07
Speaker 1: the Count Carlsfeld, whose schloss is about six leagues to
1:51:11
Speaker 1: the other side of Carnstein. It was to attend the
1:51:14
Speaker 1: series of fates which you remember were given by him
1:51:17
Speaker 1: in honor of his illustrious visitor, the Grand Duke Charles. Yes,
1:51:22
Speaker 1: and very splendid I believe they were, said my father princely.
1:51:28
Speaker 1: But then his hospitalities are quite regal. He has Aladdin's lamp.
1:51:34
Speaker 1: The night from which my sorrow dates was devoted to
1:51:36
Speaker 1: a magnificent masquerade. The grounds were thrown open, the trees
1:51:41
Speaker 1: hung with colored lamps. There was such a display of
1:51:45
Speaker 1: fireworks as Paris itself had never witnessed. And such music, music,
1:51:50
Speaker 1: you know, is my weakness, Such ravishing music, the finest
1:51:55
Speaker 1: instrumental band, perhaps in the world, and the finest singers
1:51:59
Speaker 1: who could be collected from all the great operas in Europe.
1:52:03
Speaker 1: As you wandered through these fantastically illuminated grounds, the moonlighted
1:52:07
Speaker 1: chateau throwing a rosy light from its long rows of windows,
1:52:10
Speaker 1: you would suddenly hear these ravishing voices stealing from the
1:52:13
Speaker 1: silence of some grove, or rising from boats upon the lake.
1:52:18
Speaker 1: I felt myself as I looked and listened, carried back
1:52:21
Speaker 1: into the romance and poetry of my early youth. When
1:52:25
Speaker 1: the fireworks were ended and the ball beginning, we returned
1:52:28
Speaker 1: to the noble suite of rooms that were thrown open
1:52:31
Speaker 1: to the dancers. A masked ball, you know, is a
1:52:34
Speaker 1: beautiful sight, but so brilliant, a spectacle of the kind
1:52:38
Speaker 1: I never saw before. It was a very aristocratic assembly.
1:52:43
Speaker 1: I was myself almost the only nobody present. My dear
1:52:47
Speaker 1: child was looking quite beautiful. She wore no mask. Her
1:52:53
Speaker 1: excitement and delight added an unspeakable charm to her features.
1:52:56
Speaker 1: Always lovely, I remarked. A young lady, dressed magnificently but
1:53:01
Speaker 1: wearing a mask, who appeared to me to be observing
1:53:04
Speaker 1: my ward with extraordinary interest. I had seen her earlier
1:53:08
Speaker 1: in the evening in the Great Hall, and again for
1:53:11
Speaker 1: a few minutes walking near us on the terrace under
1:53:14
Speaker 1: the castle windows. Similarly employed, a lady, also masked, richly
1:53:20
Speaker 1: and gravely dressed and with a stately air, like a
1:53:23
Speaker 1: person of rank, accompanied her as a chaperone. Had the
1:53:27
Speaker 1: young lady not worn a mask, I could of course
1:53:30
Speaker 1: have been much more certain upon the question whether she
1:53:33
Speaker 1: was really watching my poor darling. I am now well
1:53:36
Speaker 1: assured that she was. We were now in one of
1:53:40
Speaker 1: the salons. My poor dear child had been dancing and
1:53:44
Speaker 1: was resting a little in one of the chairs near
1:53:46
Speaker 1: the door. I was standing near. The two ladies I
1:53:50
Speaker 1: have mentioned had approached, and the younger took the chair
1:53:52
Speaker 1: next my ward, while her companion stood beside me, and
1:53:56
Speaker 1: for a little time addressed herself in a low tone
1:53:59
Speaker 1: to her charge, availing herself of the privilege of her mask.
1:54:03
Speaker 1: She turned to me, and, in the tone of an
1:54:05
Speaker 1: old friend, and calling me by my name, opened a
1:54:08
Speaker 1: conversation with me which piqued my curiosity a good deal.
1:54:12
Speaker 1: She referred to many scenes where she had met me,
1:54:15
Speaker 1: at court and at distinguished houses. She alluded to little
1:54:19
Speaker 1: incidents which I had long ceased to think of, but
1:54:22
Speaker 1: which I found had only lain in abeyance in my memory,
1:54:26
Speaker 1: for they instantly started into life at her touch. I
1:54:30
Speaker 1: became more and more curious to ascertain who she was.
1:54:33
Speaker 1: Every moment she parried my attempts to discover very adroitly
1:54:37
Speaker 1: and pleasantly. The knowledge she showed of many passages in
1:54:41
Speaker 1: my life seemed to me all but unaccountable, and she
1:54:44
Speaker 1: appeared to take a not unnatural pleasure in foiling my
1:54:46
Speaker 1: curiosity and in seeing me flounder in my eager perplexity
1:54:50
Speaker 1: from one conjecture to another. In the meantime, the young lady,
1:54:55
Speaker 1: whom her mother called by the odd name of Malarca,
1:54:57
Speaker 1: when she once or twice addressed her, had with the
1:55:00
Speaker 1: same ease and grace, got into conversation with my ward.
1:55:05
Speaker 1: She introduced herself by saying that her mother was a
1:55:07
Speaker 1: very old acquaintance of mine. She spoke of the agreeable
1:55:11
Speaker 1: audacity which a mask rendered practicable. She talked like a friend.
1:55:16
Speaker 1: She admired her dress, and insinuated very prettily her admiration
1:55:20
Speaker 1: of her beauty. She amused her with laughing criticisms upon
1:55:24
Speaker 1: the people who crowded the ball room and laughed at
1:55:26
Speaker 1: my poor child's fun. She was very witty and lively
1:55:30
Speaker 1: when she pleased, And after a time they had grown
1:55:33
Speaker 1: very good friends. And the young stranger lowered her mask,
1:55:36
Speaker 1: displaying a remarkably beautiful face. I had never seen it before,
1:55:41
Speaker 1: neither had my dear child, But though it was new
1:55:44
Speaker 1: to us, the features were so engaging as well as lovely,
1:55:48
Speaker 1: that it was impossible not to feel the attraction powerfully.
1:55:52
Speaker 1: My poor girl did so. I never saw any one
1:55:56
Speaker 1: more taken with another at first sight, unless indeed it
1:56:00
Speaker 1: was the stranger herself who seemed quite to have lost
1:56:02
Speaker 1: her heart to her. In the meantime, availing myself of
1:56:06
Speaker 1: the license of a masquerade, I put not a few
1:56:09
Speaker 1: questions to the elder lady. You have puzzled me utterly,
1:56:13
Speaker 1: I said, laughing is that not enough. Won't you now
1:56:18
Speaker 1: consent to stand on equal terms and do me the
1:56:21
Speaker 1: kindness to remove your mask? Can any request be more unreasonable,
1:56:26
Speaker 1: she replied, ask a lady to yield an advantage. Besides,
1:56:31
Speaker 1: how do you know you should recognize me? Years make changes,
1:56:36
Speaker 1: as you see, I said, with a bow. And I
1:56:39
Speaker 1: suppose a rather melancholy little laugh, as philosophers tell us,
1:56:44
Speaker 1: she said, And how do you know that a sight
1:56:46
Speaker 1: of my face would help you? I should take chance
1:56:49
Speaker 1: for that, I answered. It is vain trying to make
1:56:53
Speaker 1: yourself out an old woman. Your figure betrays you. Years
1:56:57
Speaker 1: nevertheless have passed since I saw you, rather since you
1:57:01
Speaker 1: saw me, For that is what I am considering. Mellarca,
1:57:05
Speaker 1: there is my daughter. I cannot then be young, even
1:57:08
Speaker 1: in the opinion of people whom time has taught to
1:57:10
Speaker 1: be indulgent, and I may not like to be compared
1:57:13
Speaker 1: with what you remember me. You have no mask to remove.
1:57:17
Speaker 1: You can offer me nothing in exchange. My petition is
1:57:21
Speaker 1: to your pity to remove it, and mine to yours
1:57:25
Speaker 1: to let it stay where it is. She replied, Well,
1:57:29
Speaker 1: then at least you will tell me whether you are
1:57:31
Speaker 1: French or German. You speak both languages so perfectly. I
1:57:36
Speaker 1: don't think I shall tell you that general, you intend
1:57:39
Speaker 1: a surprise and are meditating the particular point of attack
1:57:43
Speaker 1: at all events. You won't deny this. I said that,
1:57:46
Speaker 1: being honored by your permission to converse, I ought to
1:57:49
Speaker 1: know how to address you, Shall I say, Madame la comtesse?
1:57:54
Speaker 1: She laughed, and she would no doubt have met me
1:57:57
Speaker 1: with another evasion, if indeed, I can treat any occurrence
1:58:01
Speaker 1: in an interview, every circumstance of which was pre arranged,
1:58:04
Speaker 1: as I now believe with the profoundest cunning, as liable
1:58:07
Speaker 1: to be modified by accident. As to that, she began,
1:58:12
Speaker 1: but she was interrupted almost as she opened her lips
1:58:15
Speaker 1: by a gentleman dressed in black, who looked particularly elegant
1:58:19
Speaker 1: and distinguished with this drawback that his face was the
1:58:22
Speaker 1: most deadly pale I ever saw, except in death. He
1:58:26
Speaker 1: was in no masquerade, in the plain evening dress of
1:58:29
Speaker 1: a gentleman. And he said, without a smile, but with
1:58:32
Speaker 1: a courtly and unusually low bow, will Madame la comtesse
1:58:36
Speaker 1: permit me to say a very few words which may
1:58:38
Speaker 1: interest her? The lady turned quickly to him and touched
1:58:42
Speaker 1: her lip in token of silence. She then said to
1:58:45
Speaker 1: me keep my place for me. General, I shall return
1:58:48
Speaker 1: when I have said a few words. And with this
1:58:51
Speaker 1: injunction playfully given, she walked a little aside with the
1:58:54
Speaker 1: gentleman in black and talked for some minutes, apparently very earnestly.
1:58:59
Speaker 1: They then walked away slowly together in the crowd, and
1:59:02
Speaker 1: I lost them for some minutes. I spent the interval
1:59:06
Speaker 1: in cudgeling my brains for a conjecture as to the
1:59:09
Speaker 1: identity of the lady who seemed to remember me so kindly.
1:59:12
Speaker 1: And I was thinking of turning about and joining in
1:59:14
Speaker 1: the conversation between my pretty ward and the countess's daughter,
1:59:18
Speaker 1: and trying whether by the time she returned, I might
1:59:21
Speaker 1: not have a surprise in store for her by having
1:59:24
Speaker 1: her name, title chateau and estates at my fingers ends.
1:59:29
Speaker 1: But at this moment she returned, accompanied by the pale
1:59:32
Speaker 1: man in black, who said, I shall return and inform
1:59:35
Speaker 1: Madame la comtesse when her carriage is at the door.
1:59:39
Speaker 1: He withdrew with a bow twelve a petition. Then we
1:59:43
Speaker 1: are to lose Madame la comtesse. But I hope only
1:59:46
Speaker 1: for a few hours I said, with a low bow.
1:59:50
Speaker 1: It may be that only, or it may be a
1:59:52
Speaker 1: few weeks. It was very unlucky his speaking to me
1:59:56
Speaker 1: just now as he did. Do you now know me?
1:59:59
Speaker 1: I assured her. I did not. You shall know me,
2:00:03
Speaker 1: she said, but not at present. We are older and
2:00:07
Speaker 1: better friends than perhaps you, suspect. I cannot yet declare myself.
2:00:13
Speaker 1: I shall in three weeks pass your beautiful schloss, about
2:00:16
Speaker 1: which I have been making inquiries. I shall then look
2:00:20
Speaker 1: in upon you for an hour or two and renew
2:00:22
Speaker 1: a friendship which I never think of without a thousand
2:00:25
Speaker 1: pleasant recollections. This moment, a piece of news has reached
2:00:29
Speaker 1: me like a thunderbolt. I must set out now and
2:00:33
Speaker 1: travel by a devious route nearly a hundred miles. With
2:00:36
Speaker 1: all the despatch I can possibly make my perplexities multiply.
2:00:42
Speaker 1: I am only deterred by the compulsory reserve I practice,
2:00:45
Speaker 1: as to my name, from making a very singular request
2:00:47
Speaker 1: of you. My poor child has not quite recovered her strength.
2:00:52
Speaker 1: Her horse fell with her at a hunt which she
2:00:54
Speaker 1: had ridden out to witness. Her nerves have not yet
2:00:57
Speaker 1: recovered the shock, and our physician says that she must
2:01:00
Speaker 1: on no account exert herself for some time to come.
2:01:04
Speaker 1: We came here in consequence by very easy stages, hardly
2:01:08
Speaker 1: six leagues a day. I must now travel day and
2:01:11
Speaker 1: night on a mission of life and death, a mission
2:01:14
Speaker 1: the critical momentous nature of which I shall be able
2:01:17
Speaker 1: to explain to you when we meet, as I hope
2:01:19
Speaker 1: we shall in a few weeks, without the necessity of
2:01:22
Speaker 1: any concealment. She went on to make her petition, and
2:01:26
Speaker 1: it was in the tone of a person from whom
2:01:28
Speaker 1: such a request amounted to conferring, rather than seeking a favor.
2:01:32
Speaker 1: This was only in manner, and as it seemed quite
2:01:35
Speaker 1: unconsciously then the terms in which it was expressed, nothing
2:01:40
Speaker 1: could be more deprecatory. It was simply that I would
2:01:43
Speaker 1: consent to take charge of her daughter during her absence.
2:01:47
Speaker 1: This was, all things considered a strange, not to say,
2:01:51
Speaker 1: an audacious request. She in some sort disarmed me by
2:01:55
Speaker 1: stating and admitting everything that could be urged against it,
2:01:58
Speaker 1: and throwing herself entirely upon my chivalry. At the same moment,
2:02:03
Speaker 1: by a fatality that seems to have predetermined all that happened,
2:02:07
Speaker 1: my poor child came to my side, and in an
2:02:10
Speaker 1: undertone besought me to invite her new friend, Mallarka to
2:02:13
Speaker 1: pay us a visit. She had just been sounding her
2:02:17
Speaker 1: and thought if her Mamma would allow her, she would
2:02:19
Speaker 1: like it extremely. At another time I should have told
2:02:23
Speaker 1: her to wait a little until at least we knew
2:02:26
Speaker 1: who they were. But I had not a moment to
2:02:29
Speaker 1: think in the two ladies assailed me together, and I
2:02:33
Speaker 1: must confess the refined and beautiful face of the young lady,
2:02:36
Speaker 1: about which there was something extremely engaging, as well as
2:02:39
Speaker 1: the elegance and fire of high birth, determined me and
2:02:43
Speaker 1: quite overpowered. I submitted and undertook too easily the care
2:02:47
Speaker 1: of the young lady, whom her mother called Malarka. The
2:02:51
Speaker 1: Countess beckoned to her daughter, who listened with grave attention,
2:02:54
Speaker 1: while she told her in general terms, how suddenly and
2:02:58
Speaker 1: peremptorily she had been summoned, and also of the arrangement
2:03:01
Speaker 1: she had made for her under my care, adding that
2:03:03
Speaker 1: I was one of her earliest and most valued friends.
2:03:07
Speaker 1: I made, of course, such speeches as the case seemed
2:03:10
Speaker 1: to call for, and found myself, on reflection in a
2:03:14
Speaker 1: position which I did not half like. The gentleman in
2:03:17
Speaker 1: black returned and very ceremoniously conducted the lady from the room.
2:03:22
Speaker 1: The demeanor of this gentleman was such as to impress
2:03:25
Speaker 1: me with the conviction that the Countess was a lady
2:03:27
Speaker 1: of very much more importance than her modest title alone
2:03:30
Speaker 1: might have led me to assume. Her last charge to
2:03:33
Speaker 1: me was that no attempt was to be made to
2:03:35
Speaker 1: learn more about her than I might have already guessed.
2:03:38
Speaker 1: Until her return. Our distinguished host, whose guest she was,
2:03:43
Speaker 1: knew her reasons. But here she said, neither I nor
2:03:47
Speaker 1: my daughter could safely remain for more than a day.
2:03:50
Speaker 1: I removed my mask imprudently for a moment about an
2:03:53
Speaker 1: hour ago, and too late I fancied you saw me,
2:03:58
Speaker 1: So I resolved to seek an opportun tunity of talking
2:04:00
Speaker 1: a little to you. Had I found that you had
2:04:03
Speaker 1: seen me, I would have thrown myself on your high
2:04:05
Speaker 1: sense of honor to keep my secret some weeks. As
2:04:09
Speaker 1: it is, I am satisfied that you did not see me.
2:04:12
Speaker 1: But if you now suspect, or on reflection, should suspect
2:04:16
Speaker 1: who I am, I commit myself in like manner entirely
2:04:20
Speaker 1: to your honor. My daughter will observe the same secrecy
2:04:24
Speaker 1: and I well know that you will, from time to
2:04:26
Speaker 1: time remind her lest she should thoughtlessly disclose it. She
2:04:31
Speaker 1: whispered a few words to her daughter, kissed her hurriedly twice,
2:04:34
Speaker 1: and went away, accompanied by the pale gentleman in black,
2:04:38
Speaker 1: and disappeared in the crowd. In the next room, said Malarka,
2:04:43
Speaker 1: there is a window that looks upon the hall door.
2:04:46
Speaker 1: I should like to see the last of Mamma, and
2:04:48
Speaker 1: to kiss my hand to her. We assented, of course,
2:04:52
Speaker 1: and accompanied her to the window. We looked out and
2:04:56
Speaker 1: saw a handsome, old fashioned carriage with a troop of
2:04:58
Speaker 1: couriers and footmen. We saw the slim figure of the
2:05:02
Speaker 1: pale gentleman in black as he held a thick velvet
2:05:05
Speaker 1: cloak and placed it about her shoulders and threw the
2:05:07
Speaker 1: hood over her head. She nodded to him and just
2:05:11
Speaker 1: touched his hand with hers. He bowed low repeatedly as
2:05:15
Speaker 1: the door closed and the carriage began to move. She
2:05:19
Speaker 1: is gone, said Milarka, with a sigh. She is gone,
2:05:23
Speaker 1: I repeated to myself for the first time in the
2:05:26
Speaker 1: hurried moments that had elapsed since my consent, reflecting upon
2:05:30
Speaker 1: the folly of my act. She did not look up,
2:05:33
Speaker 1: said the young lady plaintively. The Countess had taken off
2:05:37
Speaker 1: her mask perhaps and did not care to show her face,
2:05:41
Speaker 1: I said, and she could not know that you were
2:05:43
Speaker 1: in the window. She sighed and looked in my face.
2:05:48
Speaker 1: She was so beautiful that I relented. I was sorry,
2:05:51
Speaker 1: I had, for a moment repented of my hospitality, and
2:05:54
Speaker 1: I determined to make her amends for the unavout churlishness
2:05:57
Speaker 1: of my reception. The young lady, replacing her mask, joined
2:06:02
Speaker 1: my ward in persuading me to return to the grounds
2:06:05
Speaker 1: where the concert was soon to be renewed. We did
2:06:08
Speaker 1: so and walked up and down the terrace that lies
2:06:11
Speaker 1: under the castle windows. Mallarka became very intimate with us
2:06:16
Speaker 1: and amused us with lively descriptions and stories of most
2:06:19
Speaker 1: of the great people whom we saw upon the terrace.
2:06:22
Speaker 1: I liked her more and more every minute. Her gossip,
2:06:26
Speaker 1: without being ill natured, was extremely diverting to me, who
2:06:29
Speaker 1: had been so long out of the great world. I
2:06:33
Speaker 1: thought what life she would give to our sometimes lonely
2:06:35
Speaker 1: evenings at home. This ball was not over until the
2:06:39
Speaker 1: morning sun had almost reached the horizon. It pleased the
2:06:42
Speaker 1: grand Duke to dance till then, so loyal people could
2:06:46
Speaker 1: not go away or think of bed. We had just
2:06:49
Speaker 1: got through a crowded saloon when my ward asked me
2:06:52
Speaker 1: what had become of Malarka. I thought she had been
2:06:55
Speaker 1: by her side, and she fancied she was by mine.
2:06:59
Speaker 1: The fact was we had lost her. All my efforts
2:07:03
Speaker 1: to find her were vain. I feared that she had mistaken,
2:07:07
Speaker 1: in the confusion of a momentary separation from us other
2:07:10
Speaker 1: people for her new friends, and had possibly pursued and
2:07:14
Speaker 1: lost them in the extensive grounds which were thrown open
2:07:16
Speaker 1: to us. Now in its full force, I recognized a
2:07:21
Speaker 1: new folly in my having undertaken the charge of a
2:07:23
Speaker 1: young lady without so much as knowing her name, and
2:07:26
Speaker 1: fettered as I was by promises of the reasons for
2:07:29
Speaker 1: imposing which I knew nothing. I could not even point
2:07:32
Speaker 1: my inquiries by saying that the missing young lady was
2:07:35
Speaker 1: the daughter of the countess, who had taken her departure
2:07:38
Speaker 1: a few hours before morning broke. It was clear daylight
2:07:43
Speaker 1: before I gave up my search. It was not till
2:07:46
Speaker 1: near two o'clock next day that we heard anything of
2:07:48
Speaker 1: my missing charge. At about that time, a servant knocked
2:07:52
Speaker 1: at my niece's door to say that he had been
2:07:54
Speaker 1: earnestly requested by a young lady who appeared to be
2:07:57
Speaker 1: in great distress to make out where she could find
2:08:00
Speaker 1: the General Baron Spielsdorf and the young lady his daughter
2:08:03
Speaker 1: in whose charge she had been left by her mother.
2:08:06
Speaker 1: There could be no doubt, notwithstanding the slight inaccuracy, that
2:08:10
Speaker 1: our young friend had turned up, and so she had
2:08:13
Speaker 1: would to heaven we had lost her. She told my
2:08:17
Speaker 1: poor child the story to account for her having failed
2:08:19
Speaker 1: to recover us for so long, very late. She said
2:08:24
Speaker 1: she had got to the housekeeper's bedroom in despair of
2:08:26
Speaker 1: finding us, and had then fallen into a deep sleep, which,
2:08:30
Speaker 1: long as it was, had hardly sufficed to recruit her strength.
2:08:33
Speaker 1: After the fatigues of the ball that day, Millarka came
2:08:37
Speaker 1: home with us. I was only too happy, after all,
2:08:41
Speaker 1: to have secured so charming a companion for my dear
2:08:44
Speaker 1: girl thirteen. The Woodman. There soon, however, appeared some drawbacks.
2:08:50
Speaker 1: In the first place, Millarka complained of extreme languor the
2:08:54
Speaker 1: weakness that remained after her late illness, and she never
2:08:57
Speaker 1: emerged from her room till the afternoon was pretty far advanced.
2:09:01
Speaker 1: In the next place, it was accidentally discovered, although she
2:09:05
Speaker 1: always locked her door on the inside and never disturbed
2:09:08
Speaker 1: the key from its place till she admitted the maid
2:09:10
Speaker 1: to assist at her toilet, that she was undoubtedly sometimes
2:09:13
Speaker 1: absent from her room in the very early morning, and
2:09:16
Speaker 1: at various times later in the day before she wished
2:09:20
Speaker 1: it to be understood that she was stirring. She was
2:09:23
Speaker 1: repeatedly seen from the windows of the Schloss in the
2:09:26
Speaker 1: first faint gray of the morning, walking through the trees
2:09:29
Speaker 1: in an easterly direction and looking like a person in
2:09:32
Speaker 1: a trance. This convinced me that she walked in her sleep.
2:09:37
Speaker 1: But this hypothesis did not solve the puzzle. How did
2:09:40
Speaker 1: she pass out from her room leaving the door locked
2:09:43
Speaker 1: on the inside. How did she escape from the house
2:09:46
Speaker 1: without unbarring door or window. In the midst of my perplexities,
2:09:51
Speaker 1: an anxiety of a far more urgent kind presented itself.
2:09:55
Speaker 1: My dear child began to lose her looks and health,
2:09:58
Speaker 1: and that in a manner so misty, serious and even horrible,
2:10:01
Speaker 1: that I became thoroughly frightened. She was at first visited
2:10:05
Speaker 1: by appalling dreams. Then as she fancied by a specter,
2:10:10
Speaker 1: sometimes resembling malarka, sometimes in the shape of a beast,
2:10:14
Speaker 1: indistinctly seen walking round the foot of her bed from
2:10:17
Speaker 1: side to side. Lastly came sensations. One not unpleasant, but
2:10:24
Speaker 1: very peculiar, she said, resembled the flow of an icy
2:10:27
Speaker 1: stream against her breast. At a later time, she felt
2:10:31
Speaker 1: something like a pair of large needles pierce her a
2:10:34
Speaker 1: little below the throat with a very sharp pain. A
2:10:37
Speaker 1: few nights after followed a gradual and convulsive sense of strangulation.
2:10:42
Speaker 1: Then came unconsciousness. I could hear distinctly every word the
2:10:46
Speaker 1: kind old general was saying, Because by this time we
2:10:49
Speaker 1: were driving upon the short grass that spreads on either
2:10:52
Speaker 1: side of the road as you approached the roofless village,
2:10:55
Speaker 1: which had not shown the smoke of a chimney for
2:10:57
Speaker 1: more than half a century. You may gets us how
2:11:00
Speaker 1: strangely I felt as I heard my own symptoms so
2:11:02
Speaker 1: exactly described in those which had been experienced by the
2:11:05
Speaker 1: poor girl, who, but for the catastrophe which followed, would
2:11:09
Speaker 1: have been at that moment a visitor at my father's chateau,
2:11:12
Speaker 1: you may suppose also how I felt as I heard
2:11:16
Speaker 1: him detail habits and mysterious peculiarities, which were in fact
2:11:20
Speaker 1: those of our beautiful guest Carmilla. A vista opened in
2:11:24
Speaker 1: the forest. We were on a sudden under the chimneys
2:11:27
Speaker 1: and gables of the ruined village, and the towers and
2:11:30
Speaker 1: battlements of the dismantled castle, round which gigantic trees are
2:11:34
Speaker 1: grouped overhung us from a slight eminence, in a frightened dream,
2:11:38
Speaker 1: I got down from the carriage, and in silence, for
2:11:41
Speaker 1: we had each abundant matter for thinking. We soon mounted
2:11:44
Speaker 1: the ascent and were among the spacious chambers, winding stairs,
2:11:48
Speaker 1: and dark corridors of the castle. And this was once
2:11:52
Speaker 1: the palatial residence of the Carnsteins, said the old general
2:11:56
Speaker 1: at length, as from a great window he looked out
2:11:58
Speaker 1: across the village and saw the wide, undulating expanse of forest.
2:12:03
Speaker 1: It was a bad family, and here its bloodstained annals
2:12:06
Speaker 1: were written. He continued, It is hard that they should,
2:12:10
Speaker 1: after death, continue to plague the human race with their
2:12:13
Speaker 1: atrocious lusts. That is the chapel of the Carnsteins. Down there,
2:12:18
Speaker 1: he pointed, down to the gray walls of the Gothic building,
2:12:21
Speaker 1: partly visible through the foliage a little way down the steep,
2:12:25
Speaker 1: and I hear the acts of a woodman, he added,
2:12:28
Speaker 1: busy among the trees that surround it. He possibly may
2:12:31
Speaker 1: give us the information of which I am in search,
2:12:33
Speaker 1: and point out the grave of Mirkaala, Countess of Carnstein.
2:12:38
Speaker 1: These rustics preserve the local traditions of great families, whose
2:12:42
Speaker 1: stories die out among the rich and titled so soon
2:12:44
Speaker 1: as the families themselves become extinct. We have a portrait
2:12:49
Speaker 1: at home of Mirkhala, the Countess Carnstein. Should you like
2:12:53
Speaker 1: to see it, asked my father. Time enough, dear friend,
2:12:57
Speaker 1: replied the General. I believe that I have seen the original.
2:13:01
Speaker 1: And one motive which has led me to you earlier
2:13:03
Speaker 1: than I at first intended, was to explore the chapel
2:13:06
Speaker 1: which we are now approaching. What see the Countess Merkaala,
2:13:12
Speaker 1: exclaimed my father. Why she has been dead more than
2:13:15
Speaker 1: a century? Not so dead as you fancy, I am told,
2:13:19
Speaker 1: answered the General. I confess, General, you puzzle me, utterly,
2:13:24
Speaker 1: replied my father, looking at him, I fancied for a moment,
2:13:28
Speaker 1: with a return of the suspicion, I detected before. But
2:13:32
Speaker 1: although there was anger and detestation at times in the
2:13:35
Speaker 1: old general's manner, there was nothing flighty. There remains to me,
2:13:40
Speaker 1: he said, as we passed under the heavy arch of
2:13:43
Speaker 1: the Gothic Church, for its dimensions would have justified its
2:13:46
Speaker 1: being so styled. But one object which can interest me
2:13:49
Speaker 1: during the few years that remained to me on earth,
2:13:52
Speaker 1: and that is to wreak on her the vengeance which I,
2:13:54
Speaker 1: thank god, may still be accomplished by a mortal arm.
2:13:58
Speaker 1: What vengeance can you mean, asked my father in increasing amazement.
2:14:03
Speaker 1: I mean to decapitate the monster, he answered, with a
2:14:06
Speaker 1: fierce flush and a stamp that echoed mournfully through the
2:14:10
Speaker 1: hollow ruin, and his clenched hand was at the same
2:14:12
Speaker 1: moment raised as if it grasped the handle of an axe,
2:14:15
Speaker 1: while he shook it ferociously in the air. What exclaimed
2:14:21
Speaker 1: my father, more than ever bewildered, to strike her head off?
2:14:25
Speaker 1: Cut her head off? I with a hatchet, with a spade,
2:14:30
Speaker 1: or with anything that can cleave through her murderous throat.
2:14:33
Speaker 1: You shall hear, he answered, trembling with rage, and hurrying forward.
2:14:39
Speaker 1: He said that beam will answer for a seat your
2:14:41
Speaker 1: dear child is fatigued. Let her be seated, and I will,
2:14:45
Speaker 1: in a few sentences close my dreadful story. The square
2:14:50
Speaker 1: block of wood, which lay on the grass grown pavement
2:14:52
Speaker 1: of the chapel, formed a bench on which I was
2:14:55
Speaker 1: very glad to seat myself. And in the meantime the
2:14:58
Speaker 1: General called to the woodman, who had been removing some
2:15:00
Speaker 1: boughs which leaned upon the old walls, and axe in hand.
2:15:04
Speaker 1: The hearty old fellow stood before us. He could not
2:15:08
Speaker 1: tell us anything of these monuments. But there was an
2:15:10
Speaker 1: old man, he said, a ranger of this forest at
2:15:14
Speaker 1: present sojourning in the house of the priest about two
2:15:17
Speaker 1: miles away, who could point out every monument of the
2:15:19
Speaker 1: old Carnstein family. And for a trifle he undertook to
2:15:23
Speaker 1: bring him back with him if we would lend him
2:15:26
Speaker 1: one of our horses. In little more than half an hour.
2:15:30
Speaker 1: Have you been long employed about this forest, asked my
2:15:33
Speaker 1: father of the old man. I have been a woodman here,
2:15:37
Speaker 1: he answered in his patoa under the forester all my days,
2:15:40
Speaker 1: So has my father before me, and so on as
2:15:43
Speaker 1: many generations as I can count up. I could show
2:15:47
Speaker 1: you the very house in the village here, in which
2:15:50
Speaker 1: my ancestors lived. How came the village to be deserted?
2:15:54
Speaker 1: Asked the general. It was troubled by revenance, Sir. Several
2:15:58
Speaker 1: were tracked to their graves there, detected by the usual tests,
2:16:02
Speaker 1: and extinguished in the usual way by decapitation by the
2:16:05
Speaker 1: stake and by burning, But not until many of the
2:16:08
Speaker 1: villagers were killed. But after all these proceedings, according to law,
2:16:13
Speaker 1: he continued. So many graves opened, and so many vampires
2:16:17
Speaker 1: deprived of their horrible animation. The village was not relieved.
2:16:22
Speaker 1: But a Moravian nobleman who happened to be traveling this way,
2:16:25
Speaker 1: heard how matters were, and, being skilled as many people
2:16:29
Speaker 1: are in his country in such affairs, he offered to
2:16:32
Speaker 1: deliver the village from its tormentor he did so thus,
2:16:36
Speaker 1: there being a bright moon that night, he ascended shortly
2:16:39
Speaker 1: after sunset the towers of the chapel here, from whence
2:16:42
Speaker 1: he could distinctly see the churchyard beneath him. You can
2:16:45
Speaker 1: see it from that window. From this point he watched
2:16:49
Speaker 1: until he saw the vampire come out of his grave,
2:16:51
Speaker 1: and placed near it the linen clothes in which he
2:16:54
Speaker 1: had been folded, and then glide away towards the village
2:16:57
Speaker 1: to plague its inhabitants. The stranger, having seen all this,
2:17:01
Speaker 1: came down from the steeple, took the linen wrappings of
2:17:04
Speaker 1: the vampire, and carried them up to the top of
2:17:07
Speaker 1: the tower, which he again mounted. When the vampire returned
2:17:11
Speaker 1: from his prowlings and missed his clothes, he cried furiously
2:17:14
Speaker 1: to the Moravian, whom he saw at the summit of
2:17:17
Speaker 1: the tower, and who in reply beckoned him to ascend
2:17:20
Speaker 1: and take them. Whereupon the vampire, accepting his invitation, began
2:17:25
Speaker 1: to climb the steeple, and so soon as he had
2:17:28
Speaker 1: reached the battlements, the Moravian, with a stroke of his sword,
2:17:31
Speaker 1: clove his skull in twain, hurling him down to the churchyard,
2:17:35
Speaker 1: whither descending by the winding stairs. The stranger followed and
2:17:38
Speaker 1: cut his head off, and next day delivered it and
2:17:42
Speaker 1: the body to the villagers, who duly impaled and burnt them.
2:17:46
Speaker 1: This Moravian nobleman had authority from the then head of
2:17:49
Speaker 1: the family to remove the tomb of Merkala, Countess Karnstein,
2:17:53
Speaker 1: which he did effectually, so that in a little while
2:17:55
Speaker 1: ats sight was quite forgotten? Can you point out where
2:17:58
Speaker 1: it stood? Asked the General eagerly. The forester shook his
2:18:03
Speaker 1: head and smiled. Not a soul living could tell you
2:18:07
Speaker 1: that now, he said. Besides, they say her body was removed,
2:18:11
Speaker 1: but no one is sure of that either. Having thus spoken,
2:18:14
Speaker 1: as time pressed, he dropped his axe and departed, leaving
2:18:17
Speaker 1: us to hear the remainder of the general strange story fourteen.
2:18:22
Speaker 1: The meeting my beloved child, he resumed, was now growing
2:18:26
Speaker 1: rapidly worse. The physician who attended her had failed to
2:18:30
Speaker 1: produce the slightest impression on her disease. For such I
2:18:33
Speaker 1: then supposed it to be. He saw my alarm and
2:18:37
Speaker 1: suggested a consultation. I called in an abler physician from Gratz.
2:18:43
Speaker 1: Several days elapsed before he arrived. He was a good
2:18:47
Speaker 1: and pious, as well as a learned man, having seen
2:18:51
Speaker 1: my poor war Together, they withdrew to my library to
2:18:54
Speaker 1: confer and discuss. I from the adjoining room, where I
2:18:58
Speaker 1: awaited their summons, these two gentlemen's voices raised in something
2:19:02
Speaker 1: sharper than a strictly philosophical discussion. I knocked at the
2:19:06
Speaker 1: door and entered. I found the old physician from Grats,
2:19:10
Speaker 1: maintaining his theory. His rival was combating it with undisguised ridicule,
2:19:16
Speaker 1: accompanied with bursts of laughter. This unseemly manifestation subsided, and
2:19:21
Speaker 1: the altercation ended on my entrance, Sir, said my first physician,
2:19:26
Speaker 1: my learned brother, seems to think that you want a
2:19:28
Speaker 1: conjurer and not a doctor. Pardon me, said the old
2:19:32
Speaker 1: physician from Grats, looking displeased. I shall state my own
2:19:36
Speaker 1: view of the case in my own way another time.
2:19:39
Speaker 1: I grieve, monsieur le general, that by my skill and
2:19:42
Speaker 1: science I can be of no use. Before I go,
2:19:46
Speaker 1: I shall do myself the honor to suggest something to you.
2:19:50
Speaker 1: He seemed thoughtful, and sat down at a table and
2:19:52
Speaker 1: began to write. Profoundly disappointed, I made my bow, and
2:19:57
Speaker 1: as I turned to go, the other doctor pointed over
2:20:00
Speaker 1: his shoulder to his companion, who was writing, and then,
2:20:03
Speaker 1: with a shrug, significantly touched his forehead. This consultation then
2:20:08
Speaker 1: left me precisely where I was. I walked out into
2:20:12
Speaker 1: the grounds, all but distracted. The doctor from Gratz in
2:20:16
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen minutes overtook me. He apologized for having
2:20:21
Speaker 1: followed me, but said that he could not conscientiously take
2:20:24
Speaker 1: his leave without a few words more. He told me
2:20:28
Speaker 1: that he could not be mistaken. No natural disease exhibited
2:20:31
Speaker 1: the same symptoms, and that death was already very near.
2:20:35
Speaker 1: There remained, however, a day or possibly two of life.
2:20:41
Speaker 1: If the fatal seizure were at once arrested with great
2:20:44
Speaker 1: care and skill, her strength might possibly return. But all
2:20:48
Speaker 1: hung now upon the confines of the irrevocable. One more
2:20:52
Speaker 1: assault might extinguish the last spark of vitality, which is
2:20:55
Speaker 1: every moment ready to die. And what is the nature
2:20:59
Speaker 1: of the seizure you speak of? I entreated? I have
2:21:03
Speaker 1: stated all fully in this note which I place in
2:21:05
Speaker 1: your hands, upon the distinct condition that you send for
2:21:08
Speaker 1: the nearest clergyman and open my letter in his presence,
2:21:11
Speaker 1: and on no account read it till he is with you.
2:21:13
Speaker 1: You would despise it else, And it is a matter
2:21:16
Speaker 1: of life and death. Should the priest fail you, then
2:21:20
Speaker 1: indeed you may read it. He asked me, before taking
2:21:24
Speaker 1: his leave. Finally, whether I would wish to see a
2:21:26
Speaker 1: man curiously learned upon the very subject which, after I
2:21:30
Speaker 1: had read his letter, would probably interest me above all others.
2:21:33
Speaker 1: And he urged me earnestly to invite him to visit
2:21:36
Speaker 1: him there, and so took his leave. The ecclesiastic was absent,
2:21:41
Speaker 1: and I read the letter by myself. At another time
2:21:45
Speaker 1: or in another case, it might have excited my ridicule.
2:21:48
Speaker 1: But into what quackris will not people rush for a
2:21:51
Speaker 1: last chance, where all accustomed means have failed, and the
2:21:54
Speaker 1: life of a beloved object is at stake. Nothing you
2:21:58
Speaker 1: will say could be more absurd than the learned man's letter.
2:22:03
Speaker 1: It was monstrous enough to have consigned him to a madhouse.
2:22:06
Speaker 1: He said that the patient was suffering from the visits
2:22:09
Speaker 1: of a vampire. The punctures which she described as having
2:22:13
Speaker 1: occurred near the throat were he insisted, the insertion of
2:22:17
Speaker 1: those too long, thin and sharp teeth, which it is
2:22:20
Speaker 1: well known, are peculiar to vampires. And there could be
2:22:23
Speaker 1: no doubt, he added, as to the well defined presence
2:22:27
Speaker 1: of the small livid mark, which all concurred in describing
2:22:30
Speaker 1: as that induced by the demon's lips. And every symptom
2:22:33
Speaker 1: described by the sufferer was in exact conformity with those
2:22:36
Speaker 1: recorded in every case of a similar visitation. Being myself
2:22:41
Speaker 1: wholly skeptical as to the existence of any such portent
2:22:44
Speaker 1: as the vampire. The supernatural theory of the good doctor furnished,
2:22:48
Speaker 1: in my opinion, but another instance of learning and intelligence
2:22:52
Speaker 1: oddly associated with some one hallucination. I was so miserable, however,
2:22:57
Speaker 1: that rather than try nothing, I acted upon the instructions
2:23:01
Speaker 1: of the letter. I concealed myself in the dark dressing
2:23:04
Speaker 1: room that opened upon the poor patient's room, in which
2:23:07
Speaker 1: a candle was burning, and watched there till she was
2:23:10
Speaker 1: fast asleep. I stood at the door, peeping through the
2:23:14
Speaker 1: small crevice, my sword laid on the table beside me,
2:23:17
Speaker 1: as my directions prescribed, until a little after one I
2:23:21
Speaker 1: saw a large black object, very ill defined, crawl, as
2:23:25
Speaker 1: it seemed to me, over the foot of the bed,
2:23:27
Speaker 1: and swiftly spread itself up to the poor girl's throat,
2:23:30
Speaker 1: where it swelled in a moment into a great palpitating mass.
2:23:36
Speaker 1: For a few moments I had stood petrified. I now
2:23:40
Speaker 1: sprang forward with my sword in my hand. The black
2:23:44
Speaker 1: creature suddenly contracted towards the foot of the bed, glided
2:23:47
Speaker 1: over it, and standing on the floor about a yard
2:23:50
Speaker 1: below the foot of the bed, with a glare of
2:23:52
Speaker 1: skulking ferocity and horror fixed on me. I saw Malarca speculating.
2:23:58
Speaker 1: I know not what. I struck at her instantly with
2:24:00
Speaker 1: my sword, but I saw her standing near the door,
2:24:03
Speaker 1: and scathed. Horrified, I pursued and struck again. She was gone,
2:24:09
Speaker 1: and my sword flew to shivers against the door. I
2:24:13
Speaker 1: can't describe to you all that passed on that horrible night.
2:24:17
Speaker 1: The whole house was up and stirring. The specter. Malarka
2:24:21
Speaker 1: was gone, but her victim was sinking fast, and before
2:24:25
Speaker 1: the morning dawned she died. The old General was agitated.
2:24:29
Speaker 1: We did not speak to him. My father walked to
2:24:32
Speaker 1: some little distance and began reading the inscriptions on the tombstones,
2:24:36
Speaker 1: and thus occupied, he strolled into the door of a
2:24:39
Speaker 1: side chapel to prosecute his researches. The General leaned against
2:24:44
Speaker 1: the wall, dried his eyes, and sighed heavily. I was
2:24:48
Speaker 1: relieved on hearing the voices of Carmila and Madam, who
2:24:51
Speaker 1: were at that moment approaching. The voices. Died away in
2:24:56
Speaker 1: this solitude, having just listened to so strange a story,
2:24:59
Speaker 1: connected as it was, with the great and title dead,
2:25:03
Speaker 1: whose monuments were moldering among the dust and ivy round us,
2:25:06
Speaker 1: and every incident of which bore so awfully upon my
2:25:09
Speaker 1: own mysterious case. In this haunted spot, darkened by the
2:25:13
Speaker 1: towering foliage that rose on every side, dense and high
2:25:17
Speaker 1: above its noiseless walls, a horror began to steal over me,
2:25:21
Speaker 1: and my heart sank as I thought that my friends were,
2:25:24
Speaker 1: after all not about to enter and disturb this triest
2:25:27
Speaker 1: and ominous scene. The old General's eyes were fixed on
2:25:30
Speaker 1: the ground as he leaned with his hand upon the
2:25:33
Speaker 1: basement of a shattered monument under a narrow, arched doorway
2:25:38
Speaker 1: surmounted by one of those demoniacal grotesques, in which the
2:25:41
Speaker 1: cynical and ghastly fancy of old Gothic carving delights. I
2:25:44
Speaker 1: saw very gladly the beautiful face and figure of Carmilla
2:25:48
Speaker 1: enter the shadowy chapel. I was just about to rise
2:25:51
Speaker 1: and speak, and nodded, smiling in answer to her peculiarly
2:25:55
Speaker 1: engaging smile, when with a cry, the old man by
2:25:58
Speaker 1: my side caught up the woodman's hatchet and started forward.
2:26:02
Speaker 1: On seeing him, a brutalized change came over her features.
2:26:06
Speaker 1: It was an instantaneous and horrible transformation, as she made
2:26:10
Speaker 1: a crouching step backwards. Before I could utter a scream.
2:26:14
Speaker 1: He struck at her with all his force, but she
2:26:17
Speaker 1: dived under his blow and enscathed, caught him in her
2:26:20
Speaker 1: tiny grasp by the wrist. He struggled for a moment
2:26:24
Speaker 1: to release his arm, but his hand opened. The axe
2:26:27
Speaker 1: fell to the ground, and the girl was gone. He
2:26:30
Speaker 1: staggered against the wall. His gray hair stood upon his head,
2:26:35
Speaker 1: and a moisture shone over his face, as if he
2:26:37
Speaker 1: were at the point of death. The frightful scene had
2:26:41
Speaker 1: passed in a moment. The first thing I recollect after
2:26:45
Speaker 1: is Madame standing before me and impatiently repeating again and
2:26:48
Speaker 1: again the question, where is Mademoiselle Carmilla, I answered at length,
2:26:53
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't tell she went there, And
2:26:56
Speaker 1: I pointed to the door through which Madame had just
2:26:59
Speaker 1: entered only a minute or two since. But I have
2:27:02
Speaker 1: been standing there in the passage ever since Mademoiselle Carmilla entered,
2:27:07
Speaker 1: and she did not return. She then began to call
2:27:11
Speaker 1: Carmilla through every door and passage and from the windows,
2:27:14
Speaker 1: but no answer came. She called herself. Carmilla asked the General,
2:27:19
Speaker 1: still agitated, Carmilla. Yes, I answered I. He said, that
2:27:26
Speaker 1: is Malarka. That is the same person who long ago
2:27:29
Speaker 1: was called mere Calla, Countess Carnstein. Depart from this accursed ground,
2:27:35
Speaker 1: my poor child, as quickly as you can. Drive to
2:27:38
Speaker 1: the clergyman's house, and stay there till we come be gone.
2:27:43
Speaker 1: May you never behold Carmilla more. You will not find
2:27:46
Speaker 1: her here fifteen Ordeal and execution. As he spoke, one
2:27:51
Speaker 1: of the strangest looking men I ever beheld entered the
2:27:53
Speaker 1: chapel at the door through which Carmilla had made her
2:27:56
Speaker 1: entrance and her exit. He was tall, narrow chested, stooping,
2:28:01
Speaker 1: with high shoulders, and dressed in black. His face was
2:28:05
Speaker 1: brown and dried in with deep furrows. He wore an
2:28:07
Speaker 1: oddly shaped hat with a broad leaf. His hair, long
2:28:11
Speaker 1: and grizzled, hung on his shoulders. He wore a pair
2:28:15
Speaker 1: of gold spectacles and walked slowly with an odd, shambling gait,
2:28:19
Speaker 1: with his face sometimes turned up to the sky and
2:28:22
Speaker 1: sometimes bowed down towards the ground. Seemed to wear a
2:28:25
Speaker 1: perpetual smile. His long, thin arms were swinging, and his
2:28:29
Speaker 1: lank hands in old black gloves ever so much too
2:28:33
Speaker 1: wide for them, waving and gesticulating in utter abstraction. The
2:28:38
Speaker 1: very man exclaimed the general, advancing with manifest delight, my
2:28:43
Speaker 1: dear Baron, how happy I am to see you. I
2:28:46
Speaker 1: had no hope of meeting you so soon. He signed
2:28:49
Speaker 1: to my father, who had by this time returned and
2:28:52
Speaker 1: leading the fantastic old gentleman, whom he called the baron
2:28:55
Speaker 1: to meet him. He introduced him formally, and they at
2:28:59
Speaker 1: once entered into iness conversation. The stranger took a roll
2:29:03
Speaker 1: of paper from his pocket and spread it on the
2:29:05
Speaker 1: worn surface of a tomb that stood by. He had
2:29:09
Speaker 1: a pencil case in his fingers, with which he traced
2:29:12
Speaker 1: imaginary lines from point to point on the paper, which,
2:29:15
Speaker 1: from their often glancing from it together at certain points
2:29:18
Speaker 1: of the building, I concluded to be a plan of
2:29:20
Speaker 1: the chapel. He accompanied what I may term his lecture
2:29:25
Speaker 1: with occasional readings from a dirty little book whose yellow
2:29:28
Speaker 1: leaves were closely written over. They sauntered together down the
2:29:32
Speaker 1: side aisle opposite to the spot where I was standing,
2:29:35
Speaker 1: conversing as they went. Then they began measuring distances by paces,
2:29:39
Speaker 1: and finally they all stood together facing a piece of
2:29:42
Speaker 1: the side wall which they began to examine with great minuteness,
2:29:46
Speaker 1: pulling off the ivy that clung over it and wrapping
2:29:50
Speaker 1: the plaster with the ends of their sticks, Scraping here
2:29:53
Speaker 1: and knocking there. At length they ascertained the existence of
2:29:57
Speaker 1: a broad marble tablet with letters carved in relief upon it,
2:30:01
Speaker 1: with the assistance of the woodman, who soon returned, a
2:30:04
Speaker 1: monumental inscription and carved di scutcheon were disclosed. They proved
2:30:09
Speaker 1: to be those of the long lost monument of mere Calla,
2:30:12
Speaker 1: Countess Karnstein. The old General, though not I fear given
2:30:17
Speaker 1: to the praying mood, raised his hands and eyes to
2:30:19
Speaker 1: Heaven in mute thanksgiving for some moments tomorrow. I heard
2:30:24
Speaker 1: him say, the Commissioner will be here, and the inquisition
2:30:27
Speaker 1: will be held according to law. Then, turning to the
2:30:30
Speaker 1: old man with the gold spectacles whom I have described,
2:30:34
Speaker 1: he shook him warmly by both hands and said, baron,
2:30:37
Speaker 1: how can I thank you? How can we all thank you?
2:30:41
Speaker 1: You will have delivered this region from a plague that
2:30:43
Speaker 1: has scourged its inhabitants for more than a century. The
2:30:47
Speaker 1: horrible enemy, thank God, is at last tracked. My father
2:30:51
Speaker 1: led the stranger aside, and the general followed. I know
2:30:55
Speaker 1: that he had led them out of hearing that he
2:30:57
Speaker 1: might relate my case, and I saw them glance often
2:31:00
Speaker 1: quickly at me. As the discussion proceeded. My father came
2:31:05
Speaker 1: to me, kissed me again and again, and leading me
2:31:07
Speaker 1: from the chapel, said it is time to return, but
2:31:10
Speaker 1: before we go home, we must add to our party
2:31:13
Speaker 1: the good priest, who lives but a little way from this,
2:31:16
Speaker 1: and persuade him to accompany us to the schloss. In
2:31:20
Speaker 1: this quest we were successful, and I was glad, being
2:31:23
Speaker 1: unspeakably fatigued when we reached home. But my satisfaction was
2:31:28
Speaker 1: changed to dismay on discovering that there were no tidings
2:31:31
Speaker 1: of Carmilla of the scene that had occurred in the
2:31:34
Speaker 1: ruined chapel. No explanation was offered to me, and it
2:31:37
Speaker 1: was clear that it was a secret which my father
2:31:39
Speaker 1: for the present determined to keep from me. The sinister
2:31:43
Speaker 1: absence of Carmilla made the remembrance of the scene more
2:31:46
Speaker 1: horrible to me. The arrangements for the night were singular.
2:31:51
Speaker 1: Two servants and madam were to sit up in my
2:31:53
Speaker 1: room that night, and the ecclesiastic with my father kept
2:31:56
Speaker 1: watch in the adjoining dressing room. The priest had performed
2:32:00
Speaker 1: certain solemn rites that night, the purport of which I
2:32:03
Speaker 1: did not understand any more than I comprehended the reason
2:32:06
Speaker 1: of this extraordinary precaution taken from my safety during sleep.
2:32:10
Speaker 1: I saw all clearly. A few days later, the disappearance
2:32:14
Speaker 1: of Carmila was followed by the discontinuance of my nightly sufferings.
2:32:19
Speaker 1: You have heard no doubt of the appalling superstition that
2:32:22
Speaker 1: prevails in Upper and Lower Styria, in Moravia, Silesia, in
2:32:26
Speaker 1: Turkish Serbia, in Poland, even in Russia. The superstition, so
2:32:31
Speaker 1: we must call it of the vampire. If human testimony
2:32:35
Speaker 1: taken with every care and solemnity, judicially before commissions innumerable,
2:32:40
Speaker 1: each consisting of many members, all chosen for integrity in intelligence,
2:32:45
Speaker 1: and constituting reports more voluminous, perhaps than exist upon any
2:32:48
Speaker 1: one other class of cases, is worth anything. It is
2:32:52
Speaker 1: difficult to deny or even to doubt the existence of
2:32:55
Speaker 1: such a phenomenon as the vampire. For my part, one
2:32:59
Speaker 1: have heard no theory by which to explain what I
2:33:02
Speaker 1: myself have witnessed and experienced, other than that supplied by
2:33:05
Speaker 1: the ancient and well attested belief of the country. The
2:33:09
Speaker 1: next day the formal proceedings took place in the chapel
2:33:12
Speaker 1: of Karnstein. The grave of the Countess Merkaala was opened,
2:33:16
Speaker 1: and the General and my father recognized each his perfidious
2:33:19
Speaker 1: and beautiful guest. In the face now disclosed to view.
2:33:23
Speaker 1: The features, though one hundred and fifty years had passed
2:33:26
Speaker 1: since her funeral, were tinted with the warmth of life.
2:33:30
Speaker 1: Her eyes were open. No cadaverous smell exhaled from the coffin.
2:33:35
Speaker 1: The two medical men, one officially present, the other on
2:33:38
Speaker 1: the part of the promoter of the inquiry, attested the
2:33:41
Speaker 1: marvelous fact that there was a faint but appreciable respiration
2:33:44
Speaker 1: and a corresponding action of the heart. The limbs were
2:33:48
Speaker 1: perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic, and the leaden coffin floated
2:33:52
Speaker 1: with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches
2:33:55
Speaker 1: the body lay. Immersed Here then were all the admitted
2:33:59
Speaker 1: signs and proofs of vampirism. The body, therefore, in accordance
2:34:04
Speaker 1: with the ancient practice, was raised and a sharp stake
2:34:08
Speaker 1: driven through the heart of the vampire, who uttered a
2:34:10
Speaker 1: piercing shriek at the moment in all respects such as
2:34:13
Speaker 1: might escape from a living person. In the last agony.
2:34:17
Speaker 1: Then the head was struck off, and a torrent of
2:34:19
Speaker 1: blood flowed from the severed neck. The body and head
2:34:23
Speaker 1: was next placed on a pile of wood and reduced
2:34:26
Speaker 1: to ashes, which were thrown upon the river and borne away,
2:34:29
Speaker 1: And that territory has never since been plagued by the
2:34:32
Speaker 1: visits of a vampire. My father has a copy of
2:34:35
Speaker 1: the report of the Imperial Commission, with the signatures of
2:34:38
Speaker 1: all who were present at these proceedings attached in verification
2:34:42
Speaker 1: of the statement. It is from this official paper that
2:34:45
Speaker 1: I have summarized my account of this last shocking scene.
2:34:49
Speaker 1: Sixteen conclusion. I write all this, you suppose, with composure,
2:34:54
Speaker 1: but far from it. I cannot think of it without agitation.
2:34:58
Speaker 1: Nothing but your earnest desire, so repeatedly expressed, could have
2:35:02
Speaker 1: induced me to sit down to a task that has
2:35:04
Speaker 1: unstrung my nerves for months to come, and reindused a
2:35:07
Speaker 1: shadow of the unspeakable horror, which, years after my deliverance,
2:35:10
Speaker 1: continued to make my days and nights dreadful and solitude
2:35:15
Speaker 1: insupportably terrific. Let me add a word or two about
2:35:19
Speaker 1: that quaint Baron Vordenburg, to whose curious lore we were
2:35:22
Speaker 1: indebted for the discovery of the Countess Mercala's grave. He
2:35:26
Speaker 1: had taken up his abode in Gratz, where, living upon
2:35:29
Speaker 1: a mere pittance, which was all that remained to him
2:35:32
Speaker 1: of the once princely estates of his family in Upper Styria,
2:35:35
Speaker 1: he devoted himself to the minute and laborious investigation of
2:35:38
Speaker 1: the marvelously authenticated tradition of vampirism. He had at his
2:35:43
Speaker 1: fingers ends all the great and little works upon the
2:35:46
Speaker 1: subject Maggia Postuma, flagand Demurbilibus Augustinus de Kura, pro Mortuous
2:35:53
Speaker 1: Philosophis I E. T. Christiani, Cogitations to Vampiris by John
2:35:57
Speaker 1: Christopher Herrenberg, and a thousand others, a mo which I
2:36:00
Speaker 1: remember only a few of those which he lent to
2:36:02
Speaker 1: my father. He had a voluminous digest of all the
2:36:06
Speaker 1: judicial cases from which he had extracted a system of
2:36:09
Speaker 1: principles that appear to govern some always and others occasionally
2:36:13
Speaker 1: only the condition of the vampire. I may mention in
2:36:17
Speaker 1: passing that the deadly pallor attributed to that sort of
2:36:21
Speaker 1: revenance is a mere melodramatic fiction. They present in the grave,
2:36:26
Speaker 1: and when they show themselves in human society the appearance
2:36:29
Speaker 1: of healthy life. When disclosed to light in their coffins,
2:36:33
Speaker 1: they exhibit all the symptoms that are enumerated as those
2:36:36
Speaker 1: which prove the vampire life of the long dead. Countess Carnstein.
2:36:41
Speaker 1: How they escape from their graves and return to them
2:36:43
Speaker 1: for certain hours every day without displacing the clay or
2:36:47
Speaker 1: leaving any trace of disturbance in the state of the
2:36:49
Speaker 1: coffin or the sermons has always been admitted to be
2:36:52
Speaker 1: utterly inexplicable. The amphibious existence of the vampire is sustained
2:36:57
Speaker 1: by daily renewed slumber in the grave. Its horrible lust
2:37:01
Speaker 1: for living blood supplies the vigor of its waking existence.
2:37:05
Speaker 1: The vampire is prone to be fascinated with an engrossing
2:37:09
Speaker 1: vehemence resembling the passion of love by particular persons. In
2:37:14
Speaker 1: pursuit of these it will exercise inexhaustible patience and stratagem.
2:37:18
Speaker 1: For access to a particular object may be obstructed in
2:37:21
Speaker 1: a hundred ways, It will never desist until it has
2:37:24
Speaker 1: satiated its passion and drain the very life of its
2:37:27
Speaker 1: coveted victim. But it will in these cases husband and
2:37:32
Speaker 1: protract its murderous enjoyment with the refinement of an epicure,
2:37:35
Speaker 1: and heighten it by the gradual approaches of an artful courtship.
2:37:40
Speaker 1: In these cases it seems to yearn for something like
2:37:42
Speaker 1: sympathy and consent. In ordinary ones, it goes direct to
2:37:47
Speaker 1: its object, overpowers with violence and strangles, and exhausts, often
2:37:51
Speaker 1: at a single feast. The vampire is apparently subject in
2:37:56
Speaker 1: certain situations to special conditions. In the particular instance of
2:38:01
Speaker 1: which I have given you a relation, Merkhala seemed to
2:38:04
Speaker 1: be limited to a name which, if not her real one,
2:38:07
Speaker 1: should at least reproduce without the omission or edition of
2:38:10
Speaker 1: a single letter, those, as we say anagrammatically, which compose it.
2:38:16
Speaker 1: Carmilla did this, so did Malarka. My father related to
2:38:20
Speaker 1: the Baron Vordenberg, who remained with us for two or
2:38:23
Speaker 1: three weeks after the expulsion of Carmila the story about
2:38:26
Speaker 1: the Moravian nobleman and the vampire at Carnstein Churchyard, And
2:38:30
Speaker 1: then he asked the Baron how he had discovered the
2:38:32
Speaker 1: exact position of the long concealed tomb of the Countess Mirkaala.
2:38:37
Speaker 1: The baron's grotesque features puckered up into a mysterious smile.
2:38:40
Speaker 1: He looked down, still smiling, on his worn spectacle case
2:38:44
Speaker 1: and fumbled with it. Then, looking up, he said, I
2:38:48
Speaker 1: have many journals and other papers written by that remarkable man.
2:38:52
Speaker 1: The most curious among them is one treating of the
2:38:54
Speaker 1: visit of which you speak to Carnstein. The tradition, of
2:38:59
Speaker 1: course discous and distorts a little. He might have been
2:39:02
Speaker 1: termed a Moravian nobleman, for he had changed his abode
2:39:06
Speaker 1: to that territory and was beside a noble But he
2:39:10
Speaker 1: was in truth a native of Upper Steria. It is
2:39:14
Speaker 1: enough to say that in very early youth he had
2:39:17
Speaker 1: been a passionate and favored lover of the beautiful Merkalla,
2:39:20
Speaker 1: Countess Karnstein. Her early death plunged him into inconsolable grief.
2:39:26
Speaker 1: It is the nature of vampires to increase and multiply.
2:39:29
Speaker 1: But according to an ascertained and ghostly law, assume at
2:39:34
Speaker 1: starting a territory perfectly free from that pest? How does
2:39:38
Speaker 1: it begin and how does it multiply itself? I will
2:39:42
Speaker 1: tell you a person more or less wicked, puts an
2:39:46
Speaker 1: end to himself a suicide. Under certain circumstances, becomes a vampire.
2:39:53
Speaker 1: That specter visits living people in their slumbers, they die,
2:39:56
Speaker 1: and almost invariably in the grave, develop into vampires. This
2:40:02
Speaker 1: happened in the case of the beautiful Merkala, who was
2:40:04
Speaker 1: haunted by one of those demons. My ancestor Bordenberg, whose
2:40:09
Speaker 1: title I still bear, soon discovered this, and in the
2:40:13
Speaker 1: course of the studies to which he devoted himself, learned
2:40:15
Speaker 1: a great deal more. Among other things, he concluded that
2:40:19
Speaker 1: suspicion of vampirism would probably fall sooner or later upon
2:40:24
Speaker 1: the dead countess, who in life had been his idol.
2:40:27
Speaker 1: He conceived the horror be she what she might of
2:40:30
Speaker 1: her remains being profaned by the outrage of a posthumous execution.
2:40:35
Speaker 1: He has left a curious paper to prove that the vampire,
2:40:38
Speaker 1: on its expulsion from its amphibious existence, is projected into
2:40:42
Speaker 1: a far more horrible life, and he resolved to save
2:40:45
Speaker 1: his once beloved Merkala from this. He adopted the stratagem
2:40:49
Speaker 1: of a journey here a pretended removal of her remains
2:40:52
Speaker 1: and a real obliteration of her monument. When age had
2:40:56
Speaker 1: stolen upon him, and from the veil of years, he
2:40:59
Speaker 1: looked back on the scenes he was leaving. He considered
2:41:02
Speaker 1: in a different spirit what he had done, and a
2:41:05
Speaker 1: horror took possession of him. He made the tracings and
2:41:09
Speaker 1: notes which have guided me to the very spot, and
2:41:11
Speaker 1: drew up a confession of the deception that he had practiced.
2:41:15
Speaker 1: If he had intended any further action in this matter,
2:41:18
Speaker 1: death prevented him, and the hand of a remote descendant
2:41:21
Speaker 1: has too late for many directed the pursuit to the
2:41:24
Speaker 1: lair of the beast. We talked a little more, and
2:41:27
Speaker 1: among other things he said, was this. One sign of
2:41:30
Speaker 1: the vampire is the power of the hand. The slender
2:41:34
Speaker 1: hand of mere Calla closed like a vice of steel
2:41:36
Speaker 1: on the general's wrist when he raised the hatchet to strike.
2:41:40
Speaker 1: But its power is not confined to its grasp. It
2:41:43
Speaker 1: leaves a numbness in the limb it seizes, which is slowly,
2:41:46
Speaker 1: if ever, recovered. From the following spring, my father took
2:41:50
Speaker 1: me a tour through Italy. We remained away for more
2:41:53
Speaker 1: than a year. It was long before the terror of
2:41:56
Speaker 1: recent events subsided, and to this hour the image of
2:42:00
Speaker 1: Marilla returns to memory with ambiguous alternations, Sometimes the playful,
2:42:04
Speaker 1: languid beautiful girl, sometimes the writhing fiend I saw in
2:42:08
Speaker 1: the ruined church, and often from a reverie I have
2:42:11
Speaker 1: started fancying. I heard the light step of Carmilla at
2:42:15
Speaker 1: the drawing room door, the end that thanks for listening.